The Blurt of Richard Davies

Chapter Seventeen

October the 2nd.

Swimming slowly up from the depths of sleep back to consciousness, I can feel a thumping dehydration headache developing. Easing myself carefully out of the bed my legs don't feel as if they are quite my own. Too bad; I'll just have to tough it out and get myself going, for today is the day when we take the first steps to shaking ourselves free of the Connies. Feeling shivery and not fully connected to the world I clean myself up, but I can't quite scrub away the effects of last night. This is what drinking Fed piss does to you; it renders you unprepared for proper alcohol.

I pick up my scroll - thank God I remembered to drop it onto the wirefree recharging mat before I turned in - and find there's a priority blurt demanding my attention. A last minute change of plan has seen the planning caucus for the launch of the NRP moved from IMS' head office to the Column. The location makes little difference to me, but it's good to know a breakfast buffet will be provided. I don't think I could handle another Full English at the moment, but I know I'll get ravenous later; probably by the time I arrive there.

The fresh morning light does nothing to improve the appearance of the Column. It is still an eyesore, and fills me with a sense of uneasy foreboding. I sense a pent-up, potent, latent evil inhabiting the very fabric of it. I'm really tempted to turn around, grab my things from the Perch and catch an early train back home, joining those braver than I who've politely declined James' invitation to become involved and make my excuses. But it's too late now; I've made a commitment to his Project. If I just do my best to blend into the background I can probably get away with doing as little as I need to do to keep my career on track, and honour will be satisfied all round.

The conference is held on a different floor this time. The sprite guides me along several corridors to a large windowless room, then informs me I am in a screened, highly secure zone and though my scroll will be still be able to trickle charge from the electromagnetic field in the area, it won't be able to make calls, connect to the HyperFi or make recordings. I think this is paranoia gone mad, even if we are setting ourselves against the Connies; but if it's what James wants, or has been advised to do, I'm not bothered.

He's already here; along with a handful of early risers. He looks disgustingly healthy considering the partying he's bound to have been involved in the night before. I suspect he woke early and sweated out his excesses in a gym somewhere. What it must be to be so driven, and to have the energy to spare! There are still gyms in the Fed of course; but the days when people drove cars to them to exercise have long gone. Now you do your best to stay well clear unless you are compelled to go to one in order to satisfy any conditionality related to your Annual Health Assessment, or work off part of a community punishment. Being healthy is to be aspired to; narcissism is yet another socially undesirable vice.

After a quick bite and a couple of good cups of strong coffee I'm beginning to feel human again. James opens the conference, then has to leave and finalise another deal somewhere. Instead Charles Bennett will preside over the meeting.

The morning is taken up by a seminar covering the framework of the new electoral rules and how the planned transition back to a revised form of the democracy we once knew is supposed to take place. Then we're given a talk by a well-known professor of politics at a leading university. He's sympathetic to our cause but here in a personal capacity and would prefer his involvement remains confidential if we please. He fears, probably with good reason, that were his support for us to become known his life may be made 'difficult'. The malign influence of the Consensus is making itself felt in academia as much as the rest of life.

He cites case studies from the past of similar organised transitions from states of emergency rule back to democracy, and explains in only about half of the cases was the process successful without either violence or a reversion back to the previous regime. This is followed by a session devoted to a summing-up of the history and likely future direction of the Consensus; as well as an outline of possible strategies which may be successful in defeating them.