To all employees of Marmaduke Smith Metal Products Inc.
The decision taken to commission the building and launching of an orbital factory for your company by Ground-to-Space Industries Inc. (contract noncancelable) was reached as the result of a warning from the chief accountant Mr. J. J. Himmelweiss that the corporation faces certain bankruptcy.
At the same meeting of the Board which confirmed the placing of the G2S contract all officers were voted an additional 100 percent of their respective holdings of stock to dispose of at temporarily inflated prices prior to the company’s voluntary liquidation which is scheduled for the end of next month.
Thsi is an unauthorized cybernetic announcement.
AN ALARMING ITEM TO FIND ON A COSMETICS PACKAGE
This product contains a known allergen and a known carcinogen. The manufacturers have expended over $650,000 in out-of-court settlements to avoid legal suits by former users. This is a cybernetic datum imprinted on the wrapper without the manufacturers’ knowledge or consent.
AN ALARMING ITEM TO FIND ON A PACK OF “HONEST-TO-GOODNESS” ® BEEF STEW
Despite being advertised as domestic, this stew contains 15 to 35 percent imported meat originating in areas where typhus, brucellosis and trichinosomiasis are endemic. Authority to label the contents as domestic produce was obtained following the expenditure of appx. $215,000 in bribes to customs and public-health inspectors. This is a cybernetic datum derived from records not intended for publication.
AN ALARMING ITEM TO FIND ON A MONTHLY AUTO-DEBIT NOTICE
Advice to clients of Anti-Trauma Inc.
A status check of the first one hundred juveniles treated according to this corporation’s methods, all of whom are now at least three years past termination of their courses of therapy, reveals that:
66 are receiving prescribed psychotropic drugs;
62 are classed educationally subaverage;
59 have recently reported nightmares and hallucinations;
43 have been arrested at least once;
37 have run away from home at least once;
19 are in jail or subject to full-time supervision orders;
15 have been convicted of crimes of violence;
15 have been convicted of theft;
13 have been convicted of arson;
8 have been committed to mental hospitals at least once;
6 are dead;
5 have wounded parents, close relatives or guardians;
2 have murdered siblings;
1 awaits trial for molesting a girl aged three.
Totals do not sum to 100 because most are entered under more than one head. This is a cybernetic announcement in the public interest.
AN ALARMING ITEM TO FIND ON YOUR OVERDUE-TAX DEMAND
For the information of the person required to pay this tax Analysis of last year’s federal budget shows that: * * * 1 7 % of your tax dollar went on boondoggles
***13% ………………. propaganda, bribes and kickbacks
***11% ………………. federal contracts with companies
which are (a) fronting for criminal activities and/or (b) partly or wholly owned by persons subject to indictment for federal offenses and/or (c) hazardous to health and the environment. Fuller details may be obtained by punching the code number at top left of this form into any veephone. They take about 57 minutes to present.
This is a cybernetic datum appended without Treasury Department authorization.
AN ALARMING ITEM TO HEAR OVER THE VEEPHONE
“No, Mr. Sullivan, we can’t stop it! There’s never been a worm with that tough a head or that long a tail! It’s building itself, don’t you understand? Already it’s passed a billion bits and it’s still growing. It’s the exact inverse of a phage—whatever it takes in, it adds to itself instead of wiping … Yes, sir! I’m quite aware that a worm of that type is theoretically impossible! But the fact stands, he’s done it, and now it’s so goddamn comprehensive that it can’t be killed. Not short of demolishing the net!”
THE OUTCOME OF THE BRAIN RACE (COMPUTED)
The first shall be last and the last shall be first.
THE WHOLE CONTINENT ON THE BRINK OF ONE PRECIPICE
The press conference automatically called by Nick’s program was to be held in the largest auditorium on the UMKC campus. The students had been delighted to commandeer it. Discreetly, the university authorities declined a request from the state governor to intervene. Among the persons credited with work on Miranda and those like her were two incumbent faculty members, and they were—sensibly—spending today behind locked doors and steel shutters. The students were very unhappy about those deformed babies.
Moreover, for the first time in well over a generation, the mass of public opinion was in agreement with the students. Gratifying. If it didn’t heal the split, at least it moved the split to a healthier location.
The hall was packed—it was crammed. If modern technology hadn’t shrunk three-vee cameras and sound-recording equipment to a size that the engineers of fifty years ago would have called impossible, the puzzled but dutiful reporters who had arrived to cover a story they were certain must be sensational … whatever the hell it was, would have been unable to put anything on their tapes. As it was, they were obliged to use poles, electric floaters and their longest-range mikes and lenses because they couldn’t get anywhere near, the rostrum, and there was a squabble over priority in respect of lines of sight which delayed the start of the conference until well past the scheduled time of noon.
At long last, however, Kate was able to appear on stage, to be greeted by a standing ovation that threatened never to end. It took her a long time to pat down the noise. When she finally did so, the putter-of-cats-among-pigeons made his appearance, and the audience settled to an expectant hush.
“My name is Nicholas Haflinger.” In a loud clear voice, capable of filling the auditorium without the aid of microphones. “You’re wondering why I’ve called you here. The reason is simple. To answer all your questions. I mean—all. This is the greatest news of our time. As of today, whatever you want to know, provided it’s in the data-net, you can now know. In other words, there are no more secrets.”
That claim was so sweeping that his listeners sat briefly stunned. Long seconds slid away before there came a diffident call from a woman reporter near the front, one of the lucky ones who had arrived early.
“Rose Jordan, W3BC! What about this story that was on the beams, the bait that pulled us in? This thing where you said G2S will sue officials of the Bureau of Data Processing for kidnaping one of its employees, and also some girlfriend of his?”
“That was me, and the story’s absolutely true,” Kate said. “But you didn’t have to come here for the details. Ask any veephone.”
“Yesterday you’d have had to come here,” Nick amplified. “If there’s one thing BDP has brought to a fine art, it’s preventing the public from digging unpleasant truths from behind the scenes in government … right?”
A rattle of agreement: from the students on principle, but from several reporters too, who looked so glum one might presume they’d encountered that kind of trouble.
“Well, that’s over. From now on: ask and you shall know.”
“Hey!” In an incredulous tone from a man beside Rose Jordan. “All kind of weird stuff has been coming off the beams since yesterday, like they’ve been paying women to bear kids that are sure to be deformed. You mean this is supposed to be true?”
“What makes you doubt it?”
“Well—uh …” The man licked his lips. “I called my office half an hour back and my chief said it’s been authoritatively deeveed. By Aylwin Sullivan personally. Something about a saboteur.”