Building God Read Free Page B

snip-snip-snip of the helicopter blades. “Estimates at the size of the crowd have ranged from one thousand to one hundred thousand people. Travis, can you guess at the size from up there?”
    A man’s voice broke out over the broadcast. “Well Stacey, it’s hard to guess at an exact number, but I’m not sure if one hundred thousand even covers it. You can see that people are still showing up.” The camera shot zoomed over to one of the side streets, several blocks away, where more people were piling out of the subway entrance carrying signs and banners.
    “Can you see any form of police response to the protest?”
    The camera swung away again, off to another side street where a few red-and-blue twinkling lights were visible. “There are several waves of police responding to the area to keep the crowd under control, but the sheer size of the demonstration is against them. I would guess that they will have to call in forces from some of the neighboring cities to gain any sense of control.”
    The shot cut back to the newsroom where a woman was nodding. “Quite the scene over there, Travis. And now let’s check back with Korbin, live on the streets. Korbin?”
    A man surrounded by chaos appeared on the screen with his finger jammed into his ear, trying to hear the newsroom. He quickly smiled and stood up straighter. “Thank you, Stacey. As you can see, it’s a pretty wild scene out here.” A wave of people moved backward, bumping into him and he stumbled backward, looking nervous. “We talked to several people here today who are taking drastic measures to protest the Global Modeling project.” He motioned the camera to follow him as he took a step to the side and a man covered in blood shambled over. “This man, along with others, has removed his monitor just moments ago. Sir, can you tell us why you felt it was necessary to take out your monitor?”
    The man, blood still running down his neck, had a triumphant grin on his face as he held the little metal square up high. “I did it to take back my freedom!” he screamed as others cheered him on. “I demand my free will back and I never agreed to be part of this so-called God Machine!”
    “Idiots,” I muttered, taking a screen capture of his face. Let the authorities deal with him.
    There was a thump at my door and I started, the laptop clattering to my side. I quickly closed the computer and set it on the desk, hurrying over to the door. “Who is it?” I demanded.
    “Timothy!” an indignant voice returned.
    “Alright.” I unbolted the door and slid it open, ushering him inside. “Any results?”
    He hesitated and I knew I wasn’t going to like his report. “Well, I ran the population simulation for some of the countries individually. They all show the same…anomaly.” I nodded, expecting that result at least. “But I also ran the violence statistics for some of these countries.” He handed me another bundle of papers with the graphs for several other countries. The lines were all increasing sharply with the latest results a nearly vertical increase upwards. I pursed my mouth as I shifted through the papers, not altogether shocked by the trends.
    “Okay,” I said, gesturing toward the window. “I could’ve told you that by just looking outside.”
    He nodded. “I compared that with some historical information though.” He handed me another small stack. “This is some of the data from the last few wars, of the offensive nations.”
    I leafed through them, my displeasure growing. They were nearly identical to the current trends. “So you’re saying we’ve started a world war?”
    “Well no, not yet,” he quickly assured me. “It could be a false alarm, or the models could be inaccurate, but…”
    “But?”
    “Well, I’ve been watching the live feed of global population that you had me start. It’s nearly identical to the predicted population that we printed out this morning.”
    The room had grown darker as we talked and I knew