talking. I don’t like being laughed at.
“Yes, indeed!”
Whatever his angle was, it wasn’t intimation. That I could handle—I’d even expected it. But the passive-aggressive jarhead got his power trip by other means.
He smiled, got up out of his chair, came around the desk and sat on the corner near me. Then, he pretended to be disseminating top secret information with the tone of his whisper. “Do you know how many people are born every day today ?”
This question bothered me. What was he getting at anyway? “No, man,” I said. “Can’t say that I give a shit, either.”
“Less than twenty-five percent of the pre-war numbers. Mostly in rural areas worldwide. It’s impossible to keep newborns a secret when every phone and computer is essentially wiretapped. When the AI finds out, that town is sprayed.”
“What?” I said. “No . . . uh, sir. You must be mistaken. There were kids when I was still in high school, few years back. And what about China, India—”
“How old?” he said.
“Uh—”
“What was the youngest child you remember seeing?” he said.
“Oh, I never drove by the elementary school, but there were middle school kids . . . fifth graders. I had some cousins.”
“Ah-ha! Fifth grade, you say. That being about eight years ago when you started high school?”
“Look, man, what are you getting at?” I said, getting pissed over the whole damn conversation.
He snapped his fingers and walked back to his chair, and at this point, I wondered how he had the energy to put on this show for every Joe like me who came into his office. Am I a special case? Sure I am! And so is every guy who sits in this damn recruitment chair. I’m ready to leave now.
“We were gassed . Old-school chemical warfare of the worst kind imaginable, because it didn’t kill us—it changed us. Made us malleable, passive, emotionally sterile. ”
He paused to let that sink in, and it damned well did, because I felt myself getting angry. I’d heard the rumors. Everyone knew but few could prove it aside from the lack of baby strollers and car safety seats you used to see in the old days. Now I was hearing it from someone in the government.
“That pisses me off, man!”
“Yes, indeed! If you’re human, a survivor of a heinous attack on our sovereignty—on our ability to choose our own future—then you should be outraged!”
“I am, dude—uh, commander ,” I said, while thinking this commander was too good at hiding his emotional state from the scanners or he would have been sent to a padded room a long time ago. I need to learn his trick!
“Son, the reason I’m telling you this is not because I’ve lost my marbles. Abortion is illegal. Did you know that?”
“What the hell? That’s ridiculous, man. And, what’s the point of this conversation, man?”
I’m definitely getting pissed now.
“Why is that ridiculous?” he said.
I stared at him suspiciously. “Because, sir , it’s been legal for like a century.”
“New executive order overruled Roe v Wade. It was kept quiet. If your girl goes into a clinic, she’ll be taken care of—quietly and until she delivers. They’ll say she has cancer or something. She loses her personal rights until the child is born.”
“Bullshit!” I said, full of suspicion. “What game are you playing, man? Trying to get me to confess some illegal belief that gets me drummed out? Playing the old game, ‘ By the way, do you like naked women?’— don’t ask, don’t tell. This is something like that, isn’t it?”
Ortega leaned back in his chair, mentally counting to ten or something. Finally, he met my eyes again. “Nothing like that, son. You have my word, I’m not playing games with you. Babies are now a matter of national security. In fact—”
He ruffled through some forms in a drawer—suspiciously not on his padd—and pulled out a legal form, held it out for me to inspect. He would not let go of it, but held it while I
Richard Erdoes, Alfonso Ortiz