Seneca Rebel (The Seneca Society Book 1) (28 page)

"Very well, please proceed, Agent Zaffron."

Gregory didn't miss a beat. "Ambrosia then corrupted the bright young mind of fellow S.E.R.C. scholar, Dorothy Campbell, whom many of us believed in as one of the great young minds in quantum computing, to follow him down this path of self-destruction and to sabotage Seneca security. Campbell picked up where Ambrosia's abilities ended and applied her computer expertise to breaking into our system. Campbell made the conscious decision, a
choice
, to betray Seneca and alter the Crystal operation. She singlehandedly broke an encryption within The Necrolla Carne..." Gregory's voice resounded through every corner of this salt mine. "A security measure of the highest order, both in terms of technology and confidentiality."

Once again, Senator Wallingsford reclaimed the floor. "And, Ms. Campbell, do you oppose any of these accusations against you?"

Everything Gregory said was true. It just sounded so malicious when it came out that way. I wanted to object, but I couldn't. I needed to explain myself before it was too late. Before they identified me as the villain he had painted. "No, sir, Mr. Senator, but I just want to say–"

"If you don't object, then Agent Zaffron shall continue and conclude his statement, and then you will be provided the opportunity to justify your actions and respond."

I sank back. Thank god the ground was cold. Dominic looked over at me. A million unspoken words traveled between us in under two seconds. We had to rally our spirits and trump Gregory's manipulative logic with unity and truth. It was the only way.

Gregory was well equipped for the next phase of his attack on us. He held a wide stance, and grasped each side of the podium with confidence. Filling up as much space as he physically could and more, he owned it. He closed his eyes, tilted his head down as if he were extracting power from hell and took a deep breath from his nose. Everyone in the room avidly awaited his next statement. This guy was nothing if not a supreme actor. He raised his gaze and let loose an oratorical poison that even I didn’t know he was capable of. I could just feel it seeping into the minds of the people who controlled our fate. "The ramifications are dire. Once the technological capacity to crack and manipulate S.O.I.L. encryption falls outside of our control, we can be assured the security of our society will be forever compromised. Quite simply, this one rebellious little girl gave herself unprecedented access to the minds of the entire population of Seneca. There is no telling what she will do with that capability. To us it’s life and death. To her and her friends, this is just a video game, not real life."

"Please!" I couldn’t control my outrage one second more. I was flabbergasted.
Little girl
?

Senator Wallingsford's panel lit up. "Ms. Campbell, you will have your opportunity to address the Senate. Until then, please refrain from interrupting."

Instead of speaking, I pushed the single button in front of me that I’d seen the others use to light up their panels and communicate agreement. With that illumination, my accordance was acknowledged. I was making political moves now. And this move was going to require me to sit and listen to Gregory's disgusting lies for just a little bit longer.

Through his projected fury, Gregory smirked, subtly enough for just me to see. "We warned her. She didn't listen. We took action. She revolted..." He turned aggressively towards me. "You can't expect that we would continue down this path, do you? To allow this subversive movement you have ignited to spread like wildfire and destroy everything these great men and women before us have given their lives to build?"

He was addressing me, with the most acidic, condescending rhetoric. I looked up to Senator Wallingsford, pleading for his green light to reply.

"Agent Zaffron, we appreciate your dedicated work to Seneca and I must agree that the safety and progress of our citizens is our priority. Is your address to the Senate complete?"

"Affirmative, sir. Senator Wallingsford, honorable members of the Senate, my utmost gratitude for your attention, and this opportunity to serve the great Seneca Society."

"Very well."

Putrid. Everything about him. His aggressive repertoire blinded him to the possibility of intellectual competition from a sixteen-year-old. I had to be strategic, to consider how to use his arrogance. Even though it felt impossible to prove ourselves in the face of such a forceful agenda, I had to hold on tight to my belief that truth would prevail.

"We now call Dominic Ambrosia for a response and statement regarding the S.O.I.L. accusations against him which have brought us here today."

Dom peered down at his podium. I sensed that he was gathering the steam he needed from outside his own body, because whatever he’d had inside had been stripped to below the reserves. He suddenly lifted his head. He didn't look at me, didn't look at Gregory.

"Honorable Senators. I am sorry for causing such a disruption..." He took a long, agonized breath.
Come on, come on, bring out that gutsy guy I jumped cliffs with at Difficult Run!
I focused the thoughts in my own head and tried to forward them over to his. Just as quick as he caught my thought, he shot one right back,
Don't worry, I got this
. and continued on with his statement.

"When I got that vaccination that was supposed to control what they call Necrolla Carne, I felt deep down something wasn't right. No matter what, I just couldn't shake that feeling. Nobody around me had experienced any symptoms, nobody around me had even
heard
of anybody who’d experienced any symptoms, and there weren’t any patients being discussed or interviewed on the B3 news— just a lot of talk about how dangerous it was. After my shot, instead of sensing that my body was being bolstered and protected, like the doctor said the vaccine would do, I felt a little bit slowed up. As if something was delaying my movements or decisions. It was just nanoseconds, but I couldn’t ignore it. I had to figure out what had been done to me, especially because if it affected me, it affected every citizen of Seneca. Ultimately, I did. I looked into my own blood and saw something in there that could only have been put there by that Necrolla Carne vaccine... I could see that it was something computerized, but that’s where I was stumped, for a long time. And then Dorothy Campbell came along, and I shared all of this with her, even after S.O.I.L. agents warned me to steer clear of further probing. But I had to find the facts. I had to. And now we can all see a perfect example of how the supposed facts that are presented to us are completely and intentionally misleading. That stuff in that folder S.O.I.L.'s given you, I'd be real critical of it."

After a long beat in which Dom allowed that to sink in to the consciousness of the room, he started speaking, softer. From his heart. "Yeah, in retrospect, I realize that maybe it wasn't the best way to go about things, but I still don't know what would have been. I had to find the truth. I had no other choice. And, honestly, I don't know what to do to rectify this, but what I will say is this: If the last thing I do here is reveal that the Necrolla Carne vaccine is responsible for human brain invasion, vital sign determination, biometric analysis and registration of brain pattern indicators, then at least I’ve been an honest man. Because that’s what I believe. But the most important thing that I can testify to right now is that, no matter what you decide, you need to know I dragged Doro into this. She doesn't deserve the weight of this on her shoulders. It was all me."

No! Dom trying to take the fall for both of us was so
not
what I wanted. He was throwing himself in front of the bus for me. I loved him for it. And I hated him for it.

"Everything she did that got her in trouble was because of me. If you decide to punish me, please spare Doro. She is the ideal Senecan– strong, intelligent, fair. You were right to believe in her to begin with. Don't let me destroy that, too."

My eyes swept across the Senate. They shifted in their seats and whispered to one another. Ellen Malone looked down at me, and, while I wanted to look away as fast as I could, something pinned my eyes to hers. I tried to decipher what was going on in her mind from the look on her face, but she was inscrutable. I couldn't tell if she was disappointed, proud, worried for me, or what. I knew she couldn't protect me now. She was only one single individual here and this was no 'getting out of lockdown to go get chilaquiles' type of situation.

Senator Wallingsford broke in to lasso everyone's attention with his best, measured, politician’s voice, "Thank you, Mr. Ambrosia."

Dom nodded and his podium went white.

"The floor is now open to expelled S.E.R.C. scholar, Dorothy Campbell, for response and statement regarding the S.O.I.L. accusations against her that have brought us here today."

I was intimidated by the faces turned toward me and the fact that my fate was in their hands. But I was also driven— by the truth, by Dom’s spirit, by the hope of this place. I knew we could help fix the problems if they’d just listen to us. Dom didn't want the weight of it to be on my shoulders, but it was, and he couldn't help that. I decided to take the blunt approach.
 

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, thanks for letting me have this opportunity to tell you what really happened. I may be young, but I'm no idiot. Yes, I expected action to be taken against me. It was my goal, and I’m prepared for it."

A rumble moved through the Senate. Former Navy Seal, top ranking S.O.I.L. agent, Gregory Zaffron, was about to be challenged by a sixteen-year-old girl, in a room full of the entire judicial body of this accelerated form of government. It was
my
turn to get rhetorical. I turned to Gregory.
 

"Did
you
honestly think I'd continue to just let things be once I knew about the deceptions being played out in Seneca?" I shifted my focus away from Gregory's glare to address the Senate.

"We were chased, hunted, unjustly characterized as runaways on the national news, brutally attacked and left for dead in the middle of the forest, but that didn't stop us." I saw so many looks of astonishment that right then and there I could see the Seneca Senate, at least most of its members, had been unaware of Gregory's actions. "B3 News was fed blatant lies about the supposed Necrolla Carne Disease that in turn filled the minds of innocent Seneca citizens everywhere with fear about its destructive power. But we found out the truth. As a dutiful citizen of Seneca I take very seriously my social contract to The High Doctrine of Seneca Society, which is that:
We shall pursue and honor the truth above all else. For ourselves, for our fellow Senecans, for the ultimate, incontrovertible liberty of the Seneca Society.
 

"Isn’t it our obligation to chase the truth and come forward with what we've found? And, if not me, then who?
Who
is going to identify the problem, speak the truth and stand up for what's right? Dom and I knew we had to chase the truth. It was our obligation to this society."

I felt the wind against my back. "Corrupting people's blood with nanobots is the ultimate intrusion. Blocking memories and changing the course of people's lives without their knowledge or consent is cold-hearted manipulation. It's tyranny. It's enslavement. It's the farthest thing from what Seneca is all about, but it is exactly what S.O.I.L. is doing. Yes, I broke the quantum encryption and determined that all of us are being tracked and analyzed. Every thought in our minds and every movement we make is collected data, and
you
have no right to mine my brain for data without my consent. Nobody should have the right to do that to anyone else."

One by one, panels in front of the members of the Senate were lighting up, demonstrating their approval. I felt empowered by the lights. The sun shone on my face, beaming down through the salt-crystal windows in the dome above us. I noticed that Gregory’s body language had changed infinitesimally, as he shrank back slightly, his shoulders slouching forward just a bit. The Senators couldn’t see it but I could, and it gave me a burst of adrenalin. He hadn't expected them to respond to me like this because he thought he was invincible. That his misuse of power would continue unchallenged.

Just then I received an incoming flex, and it wasn't from Dom.
You're playing with fire, Doro. I have your back, but won't be able to protect you from what is to come.
It was Ellen. Oh my god. She had the implant, too. Slowly, Ellen Malone's layers were peeling back like a fresh onion. One by one, each tier disturbed me more than the last. I had no idea what was at her core and this wasn’t the time to engage in a flex-off with her to find out. She flexed me again;
You’d better learn to use your new implant before some other people around here learn that you have it.
I scanned the faces before me. Many eyed me just like Ellen did, but I couldn’t let uncertainty cripple my drive. And I couldn't trust that Ellen knew what was best, or that she would do what was right for me or Dom. This was my fight and I had to go by my gut instincts.

"Gregory wants to label me as an insurgent, and that's fine, because the truth is, if I didn't rebel against the wrongdoings of S.O.I.L., the foundation Seneca was built on could implode, and destroy everything you have worked to create." I took a deep breath and aimed my final blow at Gregory's campaign of deceit.

"Seneca is everything I ever wanted the world to be. Safe, fair, peaceful, dedicated to education in areas that actually matter. I see a future here where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and be the best they can be. But the tyrannies of an operation like the one around the fake Necrolla Carne virus, lying to people and intrusively penetrating their brains, are the fastest ways to quash all that hope. And someone like Gregory Zaffron, who perpetrates all these horrendous crimes, should in no way be a representative of the Seneca Society. The Seneca I believe in does not stand for oppression and hypocrisy. If this is put to an end before it is too late, Seneca really
will
be fertile ground for a whole new existence. The one people have always dreamed of. Freedom was never really possible here until these truths were exposed, right here, right now."