[2035--the eve of Syt Candella's speech to the UN]
Salvatore Jimenez had called a meeting with his secondincommand, Gustavo Rallinsocka. He was in his study waiting for Rallinsocka to arrive. The fire was blazing but still he felt a chill.
Salvatore was worried that this speech might sway the world. He knew that people looked up to Candella's values and took them as their own. He knew, even before it happened, that Candella would refuse his bribe. He knew all this, but still, he could taste the power that would be his if he had his way. As head of the Bearers, all the knowledge of the world could be under his control. Jimenez would literally drool at the idea that anything could be released as a payperview excerpt with commercial advertising imbedded. The idea that, if this went through, he would be the only one to know the actual truth.
Sitting in his chair he contemplated all the potential for rewriting Shakespeare to release to a select few scholars (who would be overjoyed just thinking they'd been given access to something), if only so that he could think of himself as the singular being to actually know what "old bill" had written so long ago...
There was a brief doubleknock at his chamber door as Rallinsocka entered.
"Have a seat Gustavo, we have much to discuss."
"Sure thing boss," said Rallinsocka taking a seat opposite Salvatore
"I've got a job for you."
"What kind of job ya thinking boss?"
"I want you to sneak TVs to the Luddite youth-- I need you to use Candella's speech to stir them up, get them angry."
"But I thought you didn't even want Candella's speech to happen?"
"That doesn't matter now. It's one thing I can't control... The new plan is to use his own speech against him, noone will see it coming, least of all him."
Salvatore wasn't sure how to use Candella's speech against himself. After all, the most powerful thing a man can control are the words he use and how he uses them. Candella was an eloquent speaker, and a puppet master with words unlike anyone else. He understood how words worked, he knew how to touch people with his lips and his tongue. How could anyone use Candella's speech against himself?
ReplyDeleteSalvatore couldn't imagine any possibility, but put trust in the plan. There was no other choice, and no other way. If the impossible couldn't happen, then no one could stop Candella.
Salvatore needed to believe in something, anything. But as the days continued, there was less and less to believe in. All he ever saw was disappointments. Every expectation, every promise, all of it became disappointments. If there was anything left to believe in, it was the impossible.
After Rallinsocka left, Salvatore poured himself a brandy. The snifter felt good in his hand - balanced and weighted - just like the Bearers. "Fuck Syt Candella!" He thought aloud. "Self-righteous, arrogant ass! Free the world - ha!"
ReplyDeleteSalvatore stared darkly into the dying embers glowing softly in the hearth. Knowledge like fire is dangerous, he thought. If it grows too quickly, it become unpredictable, chaotic.
Salvatore bent down to stoke the fire, feeding the tiny embers bits of printed torn paper.
His eyes narrowed as he watched the flames grow brighter. Then, he took one last sip of his brandy and poured the rest of it out on to the open flames. The fire immediately grew, bursting into flickers of bright orange and then red flames, before dying out in swirls of grey smoke.
He smiled. Knowledge must be contained. It will be contained.
Salvatore didn't like to play the waiting game--but he would have to for now.
ReplyDeleteIf there was not a direct way to use the speech against Candella he would have to construct an indirect way. You can always persuade more effectively by approaching from the side--that was his mistake in trying the bribe first. He had forgotten his first lessons in pickpocketing. Redirect the mark's attention and when they are distracted you make your move.
Containing anything really amounted to putting the right frame around it and making it stick. If there was one thing that he had never forgotten it was how to do just that.
Rallinsocka would deliver as promised, but it would be the people who would decide; the people who would do his dirty work for him. And that was the point, for Candella to see that it was the people rebelling - the people fighting over his ideas. And in their weakness, he could take control and Candella would be blamed in his powerlessness over the outrage his words would cause.
ReplyDeleteWords mean nothing. Without belief and without action to back them up all they are are bubbles of air. Candella had words, but he could not shape how they were taken, Salvatore would make sure of that.
In a day or two--or perhaps as early as this time tomorrow things would be set into motion. The video of the speech recut, sound bites extracted and shaped to make an elaborate gilded frame around what were now still Candella's words. Salvatore raised the snifter and sipped his brandy slowly.
ReplyDelete