While Izzy went into the field to retrieve her moccasins, her feet now protected by a set of wooden clogs, Will asked the farm lady about the rusty iron lying around the barn and would they like to get rid of it? Turns out that they did and their neighbours had lots of old iron to dispose of too. When the negotiations were completed, it was agreed that any iron lying around their yard would disappear from time to time. In return, they could keep Izzy's white and green moccasins which one of the teenagers was now clutching to her body in a death grip, defying either of her two school mates to take them from her.
"If you could give us a schedule of the shows, we'd know when the Young and the Restless was on. Oh, and Dad wants some hockey games," the farmer's wife yelled after them as they walked down the lane.
Izzy and Will looked at each other. "What's a young and restless?" Izzy asked.
"I wouldn't mind some hockey games myself," Will admitted.
# # # # # # # #
From Izzy's journals: Monday, June 28.
I couldn't believe what Zzyk had done to those poor people in Coronation. Torturing them to stop me from reading bits of poetry? I fumed all the way back to the Wilizy, and even then, I wasn't finished fuming. Will said something like "About those hockey games," when we reached home but I wasn't going to spend time right now finding old hockey games to transmit to the Coronation farmer. Told him so. He looked a little hurt, and part bewildered, and I guess I did come on a little strong. But Zzyk was torturing innocent people! Finding game tapes of the Nuckaluts versus the Dames, or whatever the old B.C. and Alberta hockey teams were called, was not very high on my priority list. He left the room; hadn't done that to me before. Usually I'm the one to storm out.
That made me furious all over again at him. I could have used a little support. He had been all tender and considerate to a bunch of strangers, but did I receive any emotional support? No I didn't. They used my face to trigger their attacks! Zzyk will be conditioning the entire province to hate me! To try and kill me! Kill the Wilizy bitch! Kill the Wilizy bitch! Kill the Wilizy bitch. I had 10 years of my life with all the dissidents hating my guts, now I was going to have another 10 years with the entire province hating me?
Yeah, I know. Will protected me and did it very well. Instantaneous plan. He was as exhausted as I was when it was over. But that's Will. Great at the strong, silent stuff. The science stuff. The muscle stuff. But a boy friend should be more than just a macho calculating machine. Right?
I had to be alone; took off into the sky and played astronaut until I threw up all over my clothes. Still wearing my good clothes. Way to go, Izzy. I used to enjoy making the steep dives and climbs in the sling that would leave me weightless. Now I throw up.
Zipped over to the Okanagan and put the sling down in one of the lakes – not sure which one. I tried doing gentle dives into the deep water and back up again. Surfaced enough to breathe and then dove down deep again. Like a dolphin would do if any of them still existed. Slowly. Slowly.
I don't know if the cold water cooled me off, or if I couldn't stay mad when I had to concentrate so hard on breathing, but it worked.
I finally realized that Zzyk wouldn't spend all that time and effort to condition an entire village against a silly girl reading a poem. It had to be a test run. I did some thinking; test run of what?
I think he was researching how to reprogram the brain-bands. This particular shock treatment wasn't going to work because the people in Coronation were locked into the image of me in the specific green and whites I had been wearing. I could easily counter the conditioning by changing my clothes, or the backdrop in the scene – anything, actually. But, how was Zzyk really going to reprogram the citizens?
I couldn't find an answer. Too many possibilities. But knowing that he was going to try to change the programming in the brain-bands was enough. It was time to go home. I opened the baffles and ran the sling through the lake water at some speed. No soap, but it did flush away most of my recycled lunch. Dried off on the way home with a high-speed air run; found Will; told him I'd look for tapes of the old hockey games. He just looked at me. Like he didn't understand. Didn't say Thanks or anything.
Started fuming inside all over again.
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Chapter 14
Izzy called a Wilizy Directors and Managers meeting for Wednesday morning to discuss what she and Will had learned in Coronation. That meeting would also include a conversation with the technician. She spent all Tuesday by herself and only returned to the ship Wednesday morning to find everyone waiting, aghast at what Will had disclosed. Izzy declined to talk about the assaults on the people, saying that she had called the meeting to talk about the strategic value of what they had learned and what they could do about it. Zzyk was trying to turn the citizens of Alberta against them; how could they counter that?
Izzy outlined a long list of ideas that she had developed after the Coronation tortures and the group discussed each. All of Izzy's ideas were approved. When she asked for other ideas, nobody had anything to offer. Blown away would be an apt description of what the directors and managers were experiencing right now. Izzy called a break in the meeting so that she could talk with Stu.
# # # # # # # #
Stu closed the connection between him and Izzy and sat back in his chair. Quite the conversation! Mostly one sided. He had listened and taken notes; Izzy had spewed ideas.
Of course he would run the WZBN, but he'd think more about it first because that's what she wanted. He didn't mind losing all of his income from his legal business – this project would be far more exciting. But Izzy was right that he'd have personal expenses and would need a salary. A small amount perhaps. He'd run it by Wizard first.
Izzy's warning that Stu would become the public face of the WZBN and so might attract the wrong kind of attention was troubling. But Izzy said that they'd put secure communication links into his office and his home, help him interview all new staff, and conduct security sweeps of his home and office. Plus somebody named Doc would visit him in Cranbrook and install something that would give him personal safety. Izzy declined to elaborate on that right then. All of Stu's personal safety considerations were swept aside by the invitation to sit on the Wilizy's Board and attend all meetings, via a video link as necessary. He'd have a vote on all important decisions and would provide input. For Stu, that offer alone was worth the risk.
Running through his notes, Stu pulled out the tasks that needed his attention first.
Izzy wanted to tape more Melissa Moments but not in the same clothes. Combing all of the local stores for clothes in Izzy's size that had white and emerald somewhere visible was doable for the right person. Delivery to the TV studio for sizing and approval would also be easy. Somebody would have to coordinate the tapings with the studio people. One of many tasks for an executive assistant perhaps.
That person could also take charge of expanding the programming hours that Izzy had talked about. Perhaps they should look at two different channels so that people could have two choices of shows each hour. That would be a full time job for this person. Not an executive assistant then. A Programming Manager. Perfect for his current assistant who was overqualified for what he had been assigning her.
A Website Manager would be needed. Perhaps a part time position. Posting a schedule of their shows was valuable, but that was not time consuming to do. Allowing an opportunity for their viewers to give feedback and make programming suggestions could be labour intensive if anybody was actually watching the shows in Alberta and was willing to comment. Izzy was closed-mouthed about the number of viewers that she had interviewed. Call it a half position. Some technical skills required, but mostly communication skills. Call the position a Communications Manager (part time), probably.
Next – searching for old hockey game broadcasts. There weren't any in the New York City Library bots, Izzy had said. Could we find other sources? Vancouver used to have TV stations – perhaps one of
them had stored their tapes safely. Someone could track those down. Call it a Communications and Acquisitions Manager (full time) then. Perhaps they had stored tapes of other sports besides hockey?
All of Izzy's other ideas would have to wait.
# # # # # # # #
Izzy returned to the meeting in the galley. "Stu is interested in running the WZBN. I told him to take 24 hours to think about it, but I'm sure he'll take the job. I also alerted our contact with the B.C. government about The Citadel; he wants us to keep him informed. As far as they knew, Alaska was mostly unpopulated and still living in the dark ages. Has Yollie given John the pinky ring?" Seeing Will nod, she told him to shut off the video feed out of the Wilizy. At their end, they would be able to see and hear John. For John and Yollie however, they would only be able to hear them.
"We're ready," Yollie said.
"Let's begin," Izzy replied. "Do you prefer John or Ivan?"
"It is good to hear your voice again, Izzy. I like neither name. John reminds me of being imprisoned within a four letter IOF computer name, and Ivan reminds me of my wife. Call me anything else you like."
"Tech Guy for now? TG for short?"
"TG allows me to break the IOF naming rules. This is good."
"Apologies for the precautions of this meeting."
"Of course. Be sure that Yollie takes this pinky ring with her when she leaves and she should never leave me alone with it."
"We get down to business quickly in the Wilizy, so let's start. How will Zzyk find our location?"
"Zzyk has instructed me to offer you secret access to the IOF computer network. Naturally I would be the person to break into the network but some of you would be watching to ensure that I didn't leave any messages. You would tell me what you wanted to know. I would open certain files and allow you to read the data. The files will all have unrecognizable file names so you would have to rely on me to open the files that you want. The data that I showed you would appear to be valuable and you would want me to show you more. Each time I revealed more of Zzyk's secrets, you would trust me more."
"You'd be showing us false data?"
"Yes, in part. The network that I supposedly would be accessing is a mix of old records that are no longer valid, current records that have been doctored, and new records that will not hurt Zzyk if you read them. Much of the material is duplicated and stored under different file names to make it appear that the network I have penetrated is very large. Each time I access the network I will be conveying a message to Zzyk. Like, I am safe and now working for the Wilizy. Or, They are beginning to trust me. And, when I become aware of the geographical location of your main base, or if I know where you or Will are going to be on a certain day and time, I will send him that specific information. I will do all of this without transmitting a single keyboard character to Zzyk."
"No transmissions from you whatsoever?"
"None. You won't be able to catch me sending him information, coded or otherwise, because I won't be."
"How will you send the messages?"
"When you ask me to reveal Zzyk's secrets, I will open certain files for you to read. What files I open and in what order I open them will be the treachery."
"You are familiar enough with every fake file name so that you can access any particular report and let us read it?"
"But of course. The plan wouldn't work otherwise and Zzyk gave me plenty of time to organize the fake database and the fake filenames."
"So we can stop Zzyk's plan simply by not looking into his files. Then you can't betray us."
"But that would be out of character. Zzyk expects a certain amount of delay, but having access to all of his secrets and not looking at them would be a sign that I had betrayed him and he'd kill me. I have several weeks remaining before he'll do that. Not much longer, I think."
"How would he kill you if he doesn't know where you are?"
"He doesn't need to know. He just pushes a button and when that signal eventually reaches me, I am dead."
"How?"
"There's a hair on my head. One of my own. The signal will push the hair out of its pore. I don't know how death will come. But death is triggered when the hair comes out of its pore."
"But if we do start to read the files, and go very slowly, and delay, and delay?"
"That will be out of character and he'll know that and kill me. Plus, hairs naturally fall out in time. Without warning. Either way, delays will kill me."
"Do you have a solution?"
"No. For that I am counting on you. So long as you rescue my daughter, I will be content even if you fail to prevent my death."
"We'll want to examine the hair and its location, TG. That may give us some clues as to how you're supposed to die."
"Of course. Would Will be part of that examination?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Before you allow him to be near me, perhaps you should find out how I am supposed to kill the two of you if I am given the chance."
"I had assumed that once Zzyk knew where we were, or where we were going to be, our death would be through capture, assassination, or sniping."
"You may add treachery as well. If by some chance, a frontal assault on your headquarters doesn't work, or if by chance you avoid being there when the DPS attack, I have the means to kill you without warning if you come near me at any time."
"That means you could kill Yollie right now?"
"She is not in danger. But yes, I could."
"How?"
"On the left side of my head, near to where my personal death hair awaits me, there are two other hairs, both specially treated. I can pull either or both of them out of my scalp without consequence. When I place one of these hairs on each of your heads, it will find the nearest pore and enter. When Zzyk knows that the hairs are embedded, he can explode them remotely. You are facing certain death anyway. Hairs fall out."
"So if you cause us to die either from DPS ambush, or from your direct action, Zzyk will happily deactivate your hair bomb, reunite you with your daughter, and everyone will live happily ever after?"
"I appreciate your sarcasm. I don't believe it either. I don't believe that they will defuse my hair even if they could do that. I don't think I will be reunited with my daughter if I am successful."
"Changing the subject, you mentioned that the citizens of Alberta were going to receive a gift from Zzyk soon."
"New brain-bands, like the one I was wearing. Automatic death if you rip it off without knowing the password. The new bands have stronger pain shocks. They can also be re-programmed through wireless instructions from a remote transmitter. All of the cities will have those transmitters already installed by now. Zzyk will soon have the capacity to severely punish any unwanted behaviour that an individual or the citizenry as a whole develop within a few hours of him making that decision. Brain-bands in rural areas will take longer to re-program."
"This was your project?"
"Yes. The kill-when-removed function has been ready for months now. My team . . . my former team has been working on how to add new programming efficiently. In the past, children learned correct behaviour from a combination of a little zap and an adult telling them why they were zapped. The condition for deserving a zap had been hard-wired into the brain-band. The new brain-band will allow the DPS to re-program citizens of any age to avoid any behaviour that Zzyk wants them to avoid by giving them massive shocks over and over every time they misbehave. No explanation of why. What we didn't know was how massive the shock had to be and how many times the shocks had to be applied to get results. There'll be a field test within the next week or two, I believe."
"Two days ago, actually."
"They're ahead of schedule. What was the offending behaviour?"
"Seeing me in my Wilizy costume."
"That wasn't in the plan. It's difficult to understand why they'd want to punish that. The conditioning would be easily countered. Zzyk must have been angry when he gave the order."
"Zzyk ge
ts angry?"
"If you take something away from him that he thinks is his, he can go into a rage and it's not safe to be anywhere near him. After you and Will took away his four babies and destroyed his air transports, Rick told me that Zzyk would be unapproachable for days."
"Rick talked directly to you after our attacks?"
"He used the location device in my new brain-band to find me and we had an early morning meeting after you dropped me onto that mountainside. That reminds me. Once every citizen has a new brain-band, the DPS will know where every IOF citizen is every second of the day. Computers will track them and raise alerts if they act out of the ordinary. Brain-band location data will be linked to personal data on the pinky ring, so they'll know everything that you do with that pinky ring too and how to find you if they want to. Or they can remotely zap you into oblivion if they're too lazy. If you try to take the pinky ring off, the brain-band will punish you severely until you put it back on. If a pinky computer comes into a scanning zone and it has no brain-band data associated with it, they'll know that an imposter is in the province and they'll find him wherever he tries to hide."
"You were responsible for all of this?"
"Yes, but sadly, it may not work as perfectly as they want. When I am upset at being denied access to my daughter, I tend to make mistakes that even I can't correct quickly. Plus as I have said, I am a very bad teacher. And when I know that I am likely to die no matter what I do, I use the time that remains to me to think of ways to destroy what I was forced to create."
"You'll share?"
"Only after I see the plans for our rescues. Apologies for the precautions."
"Understood."
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Chapter 15
With the end of July quickly approaching, Yolanda and Hank were hovering just below treetop level in an isolated Aboriginal Nation valley watching the first day of Wizard's firewood harvesting operation. Hank had been tied up with his peddler project for the last two weeks, so they both agreed to watch Wizard's secret plan and bring Hank current with what the family had been doing.