The Audric Experiment by Patrick Barnes
Chad Santo stayed in the newsroom and people got their news feed from the BIP complete with reports that Elijah Harbinger could not be found.
“We are calling it Hurricane Leighton,” Santo announced. “We expect after the storm we can get some information from Elijah Harbinger himself and maybe Pierre Morena.”
Pierre was famous in Brighton and around the world. When his parents asked him where he’d like to go he chose Leighton, a small village in western England saying he had a good feeling about it, and secretly hoped Harbinger would track him down.
Leighton was green, arable, insular, and quaint. Still, Pierre got recognized. People at the store said, “Hey Pierre,” and at school they gave him applause when he introduced himself. It seemed to Pierre that as cynical as the world was no one thought anyone would be able to do anything about Mindblown. And Harbinger having disappeared, it was as if the world’s crusader had given up.
Dot went with them to Leighton, showing herself to be a different person than the one Pierre had grown to know. She shed her working girl persona, she explained. She wanted to go awhile without sex, as she was still a mess from being a sex worker. Pierre was trying to be patient knowing it was her right to choose. She was different than any girl he’d ever dated, and he was falling in love with her.
As for Dot, she had gotten what she always wanted: a real family. Sitting at the dinner table with Cloud and Dot together was anything but predictable. They had a whole history Pierre knew nothing of. Dot held Jerry Gray to his promise about the deluxe bonus for the boy who dissuaded Dot from being a freelance seducer. It was a lot of money as it turned out and the four of them were financially stable.
It had been a month since the programming, and Audric was seemingly being forgotten. The students and teachers in Leighton were different than the people in Audric. They were independently happy. Mindblown had no reign there, no influence. Edmond said Mindblown generally went after a more damaged group, in particular, places with a higher population.
Then, one day, things changed.
Pierre was seated at breakfast enjoying some bacon, a food which always had a low rating in Audric, and he looked out the window to see a stretch limousine. The windows were tinted black. A man got out of the driver’s seat. He was dressed in a suit and Pierre didn’t recognize him. He saw Pierre through the kitchen window and motioned for him to come outside.
Pierre walked towards the limousine and the back door opened. Inside, Elijah Harbinger was waiting. He beckoned for Pierre to enter and Pierre closed the door behind him. Harbinger had a file folder on his lap and he was dressed in a suit.
“You did good, Pierre.”
“You didn’t give me much of a choice. Are you psychic?”
“No. No more than a mentalist anyhow. We were able to predict your behavior based on the brain scans. I knew everything you’d do. How’s the new arm?”
“Works just as good as the old one. A little bit stronger too.”
“We took the genes for that arm from a harmonizer. Someone who dedicated his entire life to peace. That’s why you didn’t kill yourself when you confronted Devin.”
Pierre sat in silence afraid to broach it. Then he said, “What about Mindblown?”
“Mindblown, yes. Audric just planted the seed. It’s going to be a long battle. Sites that are similar to Audric have popped up all over the world. Barnaby is starting a world police to combat Mindblown. The world is aware and we’re vigilant. In places that haven’t gone Audric we are going to make acceptors available to anyone who has incurable depression. It’s all thanks to you.” Harbinger patted Pierre on the back. “You chose ‘Elijah Harbinger starts Leighton.’ Depending on what code you chose our fate would be different. If you had chosen ‘Elijah Harbinger is Genesis Smith’ a different response would have ensued.”
“You flipped a coin on the fate of the world?”
“Yes. I did.” He opened the manila file folder. “Now this is our plan for Leighton. We
have every bit of media monitored by a computer. Everything a person says or does is recorded. We believe the people of Leighton have a model psyche. We want to figure out what created it…”