REVERSE BIRTH: The Battle Against False Consciousness in the Age of Moloch

3

On the morning that the Today Show reporter disappeared, Smik was notified that two artists in overlapping surrogate familial pods had been together at a housewarming party in Barelas. Smik had specifically set up a flag to notify him if they ever met, because together they could pose a local threat to Industrial programs. Their phones had been in the same part of the living room for over an hour. The sound records were muffled and incomprehensible due to background noise, but it was clear that the two men had met and talked with each other.

It had only been a matter of time. Both of them were homosexuals and both were dangerously unafraid of economic hardship. One was Herman Castillo, a 25-year-old writer, and the other was Arthur Emanuel Noone, a 36-year-old failed actor who ran a struggling theater group. If the two of them began working together, they could make people laugh at things that were supposed to cause fear or notice things that were supposed to be invisible —inconsistencies, hypocrisies, corruption.

Most HR agents would've let it play out and dealt with the aftermath, but Smik didn't like to react when it came to his social pods. He liked to be five moves ahead at all times.

He wasn't about to let some brave new cultural work flourish under his watch. He'd seen HR agents lose control in as little as two months when musicians, writers, or visual artists got together. There was a multiplier effect when creative people collaborated.

The Castillo-Noone friendship was a problem, but a writer and a theater director were useful tools to have —and Smik didn't want to simply liquidate one of them. He decided instead to take action that would blunt the force of any work they produced together.

They were in different social pods but there were a few points of overlap. Smik focused on a gay couple with multiple connections in both pods. Their names were Lenny Klinger and Michael Loek, and unlike Castillo and Noone, neither one of them was of any value whatsoever to Smik.

Lenny, age 34, was a marketing associate at Yoniyum Craft Brewery. Michael, Lenny's boyfriend, was what HR agents called a 'barely-there,' meaning his core identity shifted with whatever social context he found himself in. He was a 27-year-old Hospitality Associate at the Beckin Hotel. Lenny and Michael had been a couple for nine and a half months. Michael's shifting identity made him particularly attractive to a narcissist like Lenny, and it also made him a perfect candidate for Smik's plans.

A murder-suicide in their midst would cast a pall over anything that Castillo and Noone did together. Maybe they would collaborate on a play, a film, or some kind of performance art piece, but if it was joyful, anarchic, or happily perverse, the shocking tragedy in their circle would make the whole thing ring false. It would alter their worldview enough to suck the joy out of the project and render it impotent of psychic energy.

Smik put in an order at the chem lab in Costa Mesa: Idilitrine, 25 MG —the Industrial brand name for Methylenedioxytetrafluoxeamphetimine. It had been synthesized to produce extravagant suicidal action, and usually drove the subject to take out as many people as possible on their way out. In close quarters, it was a murder/suicide potion and its efficacy rate rose to 87% when there was a gun nearby. Smik checked the files but found that no one in their surrogate familial pod was a gun-owner. Fucking liberals, Smik thought.

He needed a stage where his two players would be in close proximity to the crucial prop —preferably something with a high likelihood of causing death, like a nine-millimeter.

He immediately thought of George McCandless's place up in Taos. George was Industry but on the occult side, and far enough up the pyramid to have amassed a small fortune as an 'influencer' of very powerful people. How much his 'influence' had to do with his Industry connections versus his network of informers in the underground circuit was unclear. In any case, he was Smik's closest connection to the gay community in Albuquerque.

"Smik, how's your mother's back doing? Have you called her lately?" He asked. George was the kind of person who remembered details like that, even though Smik had only talked with him maybe twice in the last five years.

"Her back doesn't bother her anymore." Smik said. "In fact, all her troubles are over. And no, I haven't called her in awhile."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" George said, sounding exactly like a sincere person. "When did it happen?"

"Last year." Smik said.

"All men go to pieces when their mothers die." George said. "It doesn't matter what the relationship was like."

"Hmm. Listen I need a favor George. Do you still have that place in Taos?"

"Yes."

"There's a gay couple that I'd like you to have up there as soon as possible. I don't think you know them, but you know people who know them. See if you can get them up there for the weekend."

"You want me to host?"

"No, they should be alone." Smik said.

"That shouldn't be a problem, what's the idea?"

"I'll arrange for there to be a handgun in the house, and I'd like you to specifically mention it to them. Tell them you're having problems with raccoons or something. Just be sure they know it's there."

"This sounds like it could get messy." He said. "I hope the pay-scale reflects the inconvenience of having bloodshed in my vacation home."

"It will." Smik said.

"Then it's no problem on my end, just send the information." George said. "Did you hear the one about the local girl who was abducted by aliens on live TV?"

"Was she a local girl?" Smik asked.

"You're the HR agent, don't you know? She was raised by those earth-mother dykes out in Marbella. Her real name is Mann."

"Sarah Mann? Daughter of Minnie Corvelli?"

"That's her." George said. "She's a product of the Kibele Academy. You remember her?"

"Sure." Smik said. "But she never went through the Academy schools. I think she went back east for college and never came home. She's not even a Kibelian."

"Well what do you make of it boychick? Was it a consumer conditioning gag? The Obliques?"

"Could be, but I was thinking it originated from your side. Aren't you guys always talking about bringing awe and wonder back to the world?"

"Nobody I know will give me so much as a wink on this thing." George said. "You think she'll turn up? Or is she working her way through the intestines of a reef shark by now?"

"She'll turn up." Smik said. "You gotta figure a gag like that is going to have a beginning, middle, and end."