With These Eyes (2 page)

Isabelle stood at the island. On the counter
was her breakfast consisting of several rare fruits from her
garden, as well as a pile of bananas. Tonati laid on the ground
beside her. She carefully cut the fruit and set the seeds aside so
she could plant them later. A couple of ripe bananas were sizzling
in the frying pan. On the counter laid a file folder brimming with
print-outs and photocopies. Its cover bore a label.

New Energy Sources

Isabelle went over to her refrigerator. A
note on the door reminded her of a dentist appointment the next
morning.

In a drawer that had Tonati's face on it was
nothing but red meat, the only carnivorous food anywhere in sight.
The puma's eyes grew big when Isabelle reached into the drawer and
took out a pack of beef.

With an encouraging voice she said, "You
should be happy, you almost beat me."

Tonati snarled and with breakfast in
Isabelle's hands, they headed outside the kitchen where a dining
area was built into the rock. Isabelle placed the tray with food on
her very rustic breakfast table. She lovingly set Tonati's dish on
the ground. He let out a sound that almost made him appear like a
house cat before he began to devour the food in his bowl. He paused
for a moment and looked Isabelle in the eyes, as if asking her a
question.

"I left them inside. Nothing gets by you,
does it?" Isabelle said to him.

She stood up and walked back inside only to
return with a little satchel. Isabelle briefly swabbed her shoulder
with an alcohol pad. She removed one of a row of preloaded syringes
from the little satchel. The liquid inside the glass cylinder
looked a bit like celery juice with a very unusual shimmer to it.
It was clearly nothing like what one would get out of a stalk of
celery. Isabelle injected the contents of the hypodermic into her
shoulder.

Together, Isabelle and Tonati were enjoying
their breakfast. Colorful butterflies filled the air and a swarm of
green parrots landed on the trees around them. It was as if for a
moment they had left the smoggy landscape of the megalopolis and
gone to a faraway tropical jungle.

Her neighbors were saying the parrots were
the descendants of a swarm that had escaped from a pet store, but
Isabelle thought otherwise. She had noticed that with the changes
California’s climate had experienced, other non-native creatures
had made the city their home. There was little doubt in her mind
that the birds had migrated here in an effort to adapt to the
variance in temperature. Either way, she welcomed their
presence.

After breakfast, Isabelle perused the
contents of the file about new sources of energy. She leafed
through an abundance of documents, a few of which were discussing
concepts of new inventions that claimed to produce energy without
the use of fuel. The author of a very extensive dissertation
claimed to have turned an ordinary electro-motor into a perpetual
motion device by adding magnets. The paper stated that the device
was able to provide a continuous flow of current while propelling
itself.

Isabelle smiled. She turned to her puma and
commented, "Tonati, I wonder what kids actually learn in school."
She drew a pink slash across the page and pulled out the next
document, which sported the picture of a luminous orb. The title
read:

Scientists have proven the existence of an
alternate universe.

Isabelle was fascinated by this idea. She
carefully read the paper from beginning to end. The paper claimed
that an adjacent universe was entirely comprised of anti-matter.
Isabelle remembered from college that anti-matter was in principle
no different than the material that filled our realm, except for
one fact: The charges of subatomic particles were reversed. This
meant the nucleus of such an atom would have a negative charge with
a positively-charged particle, a positron, in its orbit, where in
our world a negative electron would be found. Isabelle realized how
profound this knowledge was. "If particles from the two universes
touched, they'd become pure energy," she thought to herself. A
chill ran through her body, making the hair on her arms stand on
end. The only real scientific proof would be to open a portal to a
place where no one could ever go. It would be solely a place of
pure, unlimited energy.

Isabelle realized this knowledge had the
potential to change the direction of mankind's journey.

3 THE PONYTAIL AND THE CHICKEN

At the same time across town, the city's
newest chicken restaurant was celebrating its grand opening. Like
most commercial enterprises, the
Chicken Palace
was a
wholly-owned subsidiary of the Apophis Corporation. This event,
however, was more than just the opening of another fast food place
that served genetically engineered meat. For its first few hours of
operation the newly-opened facility was to serve as the backdrop
for America's most popular television show,
Pin the
Ponytail
.

This came on the morning after the great
merger of the last two corporations remaining. Following hostile
takeovers of virtually every small business in the nation and
around the world, the two had nothing left to go after but each
other. Neither corporation was about to give up its seat of power,
so the head of Apophis, industrial magnate Gene Soskyh, devised a
plan that would further strengthen his company's power and be too
attractive to resist for his opponent, the Tefis Corporation. He
offered Tefis all of Apophis' energy-related facilities, from
mining and generating to distribution, giving them the global
monopoly on the production and distribution of energy. In exchange,
Apophis had acquired all of Tefis' facilities of raw materials,
production and sale of goods and services. This had made Apophis
the sole provider of tangible goods. There were only a few
independent businesses left, but Gene, now the most powerful man in
the world, had plans for them, as well.

To drum up support for his company, Gene made
good use of his media outlets. Among his most powerful weapons of
mass deception was an empire of television shows hosted by the
charismatic Michael Leese. Michael lived at the pulse of the public
and wore his brown hair in the trademark ponytail, like the rebel
he sought to portray. Michael's strength was tapping into the
public's sentiment and selling them what they believed would fill
the voids he helped create. This day was going to be the launch of
Gene's latest tool of control - retina and DNA scans. This new
technology would reveal each person's biological potential and tie
it irrefutably to their identity.

The curb outside the Chicken Palace was lined
with television production trucks. It looked like a major sporting
event was taking place. The entire restaurant had been turned into
the set of Michael's flagship show
Pin the Ponytail
. The
futile events on Michael's show often provided the news with their
lead story. This enabled Gene to bury major political events deep
inside his many newspapers. This day, all the screens and papers
where filled with news and headlines about how magnificently the
merger between the two companies had been received by the world -
despite great opposition by many. The nation's most influential
trendsetter, Michael, was going to be a big help to Gene in
convincing the masses to embrace a monopoly over a free-market
society.

The restaurant's dining area had been cleared
of its tables and chairs. Television cameras and lights provided a
whole different kind of decor. In place of the cash registers, a
DNA and retina scan machine was towering prominently on the
counter. Audience bleachers were set up on the other side of the
rather large dining area. A mix of house-wives and -husbands filled
every available seat. Several families were standing in a long line
that lead to the retina scan. A man dressed in a chicken suit was
attending the device as parents brought him their offspring to be
scanned.

Michael Leese looked sharp in his
hand-tailored suit, very much like a business man - his ponytail
said otherwise. It was just what he needed for the look of someone
who's a rebel, a person who sided against the establishment. After
all, Michael's shows were full of blame for the government's
inability to cope with the problems that were plaguing society. The
people wanted to hear that they were living their lives the best
they could, not be criticized. It was easy for the man with the
ponytail to shift the blame on a government that truly had its
share of issues. This day’s episode was going to be no exception.
Michael was standing off-stage, talking on a video phone. Inside
the control room onboard one of the production trucks, the show's
director David Critchett was anxiously looking at his
stopwatch.

"Thirty seconds to air!" David proclaimed
over the headset.

He took his finger off the
all
button
on the panel for the
I
nterruptible
F
eed
b
ack,
which transmitted his voice directly into Michael's earwig. Michael
continued his video conference as if he hadn't heard the director's
announcement. Soon the show's opening graphic began to play on the
studio monitors.

"Ten Seconds!"

It was the voice of John, the floor manager
who was hastily approaching Michael. The television host casually
ended his call and took his mark.

Inside the production truck, Michael's image
appeared on several monitors as the camera operators were framing
him up. On the program monitor, the show's opening featured Michael
uncovering scandals and carrying a child from a burning building.
David's index finger depressed the
host
button on the
I.F.B.

"Five, four, three..."

David's voice came in clear over the earwig.
Michael was in his element. The camera's red tally-light
illuminated and Michael addressed the lens.

"Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen and
welcome to a very special edition of our show. We're coming to you
today from the grand opening of L.A's most technologically-advanced
chicken restaurant. But we're celebrating more than the opening of
an all-genetically fortified nutrition center. Everywhere you go
today, people are talking about the historic event. Never before in
the history of modern man has there been a single entity that
provided all the world's goods and services. The benefits for us
all are staggering."

Michael left his mark and approached a woman,
Betty Caisson, a middle-aged homemaker and her overweight son, Max,
who were standing in line for the retina scanner.

"Ma'am?" Michael asked.

The woman was as excited as a Beatles fan
talking to Ringo. "Yes?" Betty responded as blood rushed to her
face.

Even Betty's son was visibly excited and
sweating profusely. His ball-cap sported the show’s logo in which
Michael’s long haired silhouette of a their “rebel-leader”
prominently hovered over his cheering fans. A ponytail stretched
from the hat to Max’s shoulders.

Michael motioned towards the kid's hat. "I
see everyone in the family is a fan of the show. How do you feel
about the unexpected deal between Apophis and the Tefis
corporation?"

Betty responded: "Well, I think it's just
great. My family and I really love it. Don't we, Max?"

Max took off his ball-cap and its attached
ponytail, revealing a head of short hair as his mother rambled
on.

"We save so much time not having to
comparison shop any more, and no more arguing about what store to
go to. You know, we just shop on-line. That leaves more time for
work. The best part is I don't have to balance my checkbook any
more. Since Apophis owns the bank, too, they do it all for us. It's
nice to be able to let someone else do the thinking."

Michael seemed pleased with his interviewee's
response. "There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Your
convenience and comfort have reached a new high, thanks to the
tireless efforts of the Apophis Corporation." Michael turned back
from the camera towards Betty and asked, "But there is another
reason why you are here today, isn't there?"

"Oh, you better believe it," Betty answered.
"I'm getting my son’s retina scanned so all his records can be in
safekeeping with Apophis."

Michael probed. "And what prompted you to do
that?"

Betty replied angrily, "My husband did when
he burned down our house and all our papers went up in flames."

Inside the control room, David had a video
cued up on the preview monitor. His command rang out over the
headset. "Ready A, roll and take A."

The video jumped to the program monitor. It
featured a shot of the rural Caisson residence during a lightning
storm. Inside the chicken restaurant, everyone's eyes were on the
monitors.

Michael commented, "And we're lucky enough
you videotaped the whole thing."

Betty replied, "That's because my husband had
this idea where he thought he could save some money. You know how
energy has gotten so expensive? Well, my husband thought he would
outsmart the power company and save the electricity from lightning
in this enormous battery he had built in our basement. He worked in
the mine all his life and he'd bring home graphite dust in the back
of his truck."

Michael: "Graphite? Isn't that
flammable?"

Betty replied while nodding. "If that isn't
the understatement of the century! Of course, my husband said
nothing about that when he turned our entire storm cellar into this
thing he called a capacitor."

Michael grimaced and interjected. "Sounds
very technical. I doubt most our viewers know about this sort of
thing. Maybe I should explain a little: A capacitor is a lot like a
battery, except it is able to fully charge or discharge all the
energy it stores in just the fraction of a second."

Betty continued: "Yes, and my husband built
one of these things by layering the graphite dust he had brought
home over the years between a ton of plastic sheets. He was
convinced he could store electricity in it that would power our
house the rest of the year."