Democracy is Dead

Chapter Twenty Nine

Cress spent the walk to their next Democracy lecture gushing about her most recent date with Castor. He'd been telling her more about his work at the FI, how they decided which campaigns to support and how best they could use their profits to support the public. Athena tried her hardest not to scoff; Cress seemed to forget that Castor only worked in public relations - he didn't have a hand in making any of those decisions, he just sold them to the adoring public.

"And then," Cress continued, oblivious to Athena's disinterest, "He promised to introduce me to Mr Leighton! Can you imagine it? I might be able to apply for a world specialism next year with a personal letter of recommendation from Mr Leighton! Providing he likes me, of course, although Castor promised that he will! Oh, it's all so perfect, Athy! You know," she added, noticing Athena's quietness for the first time, "I'm sure he could introduce you too, if you wanted?"

"Thanks, Cress, but I don't think world voting is for me."

Cress' face expressed her disbelief that anyone could resist the lure of world voting. "What do you think you'll specialise in then?"

The last time Athena had discussed this topic, she'd been with Dyo in Hastings. Dyo, who hadn't been particularly impressed by Athena's detective work during the VC tour. Apparently nodding at someone wasn't proof that you working together to bring down resistors of the system.

"Business," she told Cress, feeling certain about her choice for the first time. "I'm going to apply for the modules that focus on local commerce and small business ventures."

Cress was silent for a moment, thoughtful. "I think that will be a good fit for you, Athy," she replied at last, sounding genuinely pleased for her friend.

"And world voting is the perfect fit for you," Athena told Cress, making her beam.

"I'm pleased you think so. Demi wasn't impressed at all when I mentioned it to her last night while we were chatting on the feeds. But I guess you don't need personal recommendations from the leader of the FI, when your dad is the CEO of his own multinational corporation. She told me that Mr Leighton is an old friend of her dad's and that she had frequent play dates with his son when they were kids."

"I didn't even know Mr Leighton had a son," Athena said, only vaguely interested. She'd just received a message from Sephy letting her know that she was skipping the morning's lecture in favour of a lie in and breakfast in bed, courtesy of her long-suffering boyfriend, whom she was still guilt-tripping into making amends for their temporary break-up.

"Apparently he's really strange. Isn't interested in his father's company at all. Demi's parents had hoped to set them up when they were younger, but they gave him up as a lost cause when he arrived at her twelfth birthday party in a green shirt - the pop colour was blue at the time. Demi said that it caused quite a scandal! Mr Leighton was mortified and his son hasn't been seen at society events since."

Athena nodded, her mind elsewhere. Demi had first-hand experience with the inner workings of the system; the nuts and bolts that helped the rich and powerful to stay on top. What did that mean for her position as their campaign group leader? Was she just collecting more sheep to join her father's flock, increasing their wealth as they slowly took over the world? Demi had always seemed nice, but perhaps that was part of a carefully orchestrated act.

Athena and Cress arrived in the lecture hall at the same time that Ajax walked out onto the stage. They took their seats quickly and Athena pushed Demi to the back of her mind as she pulled out her notepad and pen.

"Today, I am going to focus on one of the 'leaders' of the Dark Years: Bruce the Brutal. Bruce was young and idealistic when he took control of the United Kingdom - as it was still known at that point. He was full of passion and ideas and ascended to great public support, with promises of a proper legal system, a return to education and, with time: stability; jobs; and food. However, after a few months our 'legal system' relied purely on his whims, education featured his version of history and the only people with stability, food and jobs were his important supporters. The masses who had helped him take power were now forgotten; mere inconveniences to his comfortable rule. Instead of falling, the death toll rose. But, after months of broken promises and worsening conditions, so did the people."

Before Ajax could tell them - in his customary gruesome detail - what happened to Bruce the Brutal, whispers spread through the lecture hall.

"The feed!" Cress exclaimed. "It's gone down!"

Throughout the room, everyone was saying the same thing.

Athena checked for herself, amazed. The feed never went down. The very idea of it was impossible.

Ajax had no hope of regaining his audience while such an unprecedented disaster was taking place. Instead of continuing his lecture, he took his own glasses off and started to fiddle with the mechanism in the frame.

"It must be the same people who were behind the explosion!" Cress said, her mouth wide. "Castor warned me that they might try something else; that their results sabotage would be only the beginning. Now they've targeted the fabric of our society!"

Athena was shocked. Was this another Castor set up? Or could Bree's group be behind it? She'd been out of the loop for so long now that she had no idea what they were planning. Was this within Ismene's skill set? If anyone would know, it would be Ajax. Athena looked at the stage and found her lecturer looking straight back at her.

"I'll be back in a minute," she told Cress, getting up and walking down the aisle towards Ajax.

"What's going on?" she whispered to him when she got there.

"I have no idea," he told her, looking as confused as his students.

"It's definitely not Bree then?"

"No, she wouldn't have a clue how to do something like this. I don't think she would want to, either. It wouldn't help her. Things haven't been going well recently. Meetings aren't running as smoothly without Dyo; Briseis is too busy trying to unify the group to waste time orchestrating something like this. No, this has 'set up' written all over it. I think someone else is trying to make us look like the bad guys."

Athena looked back towards Cress: "Castor warned me that they might try something else." A coincidence, or a cleverly played set-up?

"I agree. But why would they bring down the feeds? There will be chaos."

"Controlled chaos, I think. Give it a few minutes and they'll be back up. Probably with some kind of message claiming an outside attack on the system..."

Sure enough, as soon as Ajax finished speaking, glasses all around the room lit up, blinking red with the same message.

We apologise for the temporary loss of the feeds. Our system was attacked by an external virus, but we now have it under control and do not anticipate further disruption. Have a nice day.

"This is bad. I need to speak to Nestor." Ajax sighed. "It's not as though anyone here is going to listen to me now, at any rate.

"Alright, first years," he called out to the lecture hall. "Today's lecture will be rescheduled. You are all free to go home and panic about the imminent end of the world."