‘Yeeehaaa!’ Buck screamed.
‘Face facts. We’re the elite of your so-called strength and we’re a bunch of weirdos. I mean look at how Mudge dresses,’ I said.
‘Hey, I’m a fucking serious journalist!’ Mudge complained.
‘So, who leads? We do after all work with most governments in the world. You appear to be intent on overthrowing democracy as well as everything else you’ve attacked,’ Cronin said.
‘We haven’t touched the infrastructure of government, though I don’t doubt there will be the world’s largest and most transparent…’ Mudge began.
‘Witch hunt?’ Cronin suggested.
‘Corruption investigation,’ Mudge finished. ‘But we can help governments. See, through God we have the capability to reveal as much truth as is technologically possible.’
‘How very Orwellian,’ Cronin sneered.
‘Orwellian how?’ Pagan asked. I had no idea what they were talking about. ‘We didn’t create the Panopticon.’ I still didn’t have a clue what they were talking about. ‘The mechanism for near-total surveillance was already in place. We’re just taking it out of your hands and making it open to everyone. So we can watch you as well.’
‘As for democracy, we now, through God, have the ability to run a worldwide referendum so everyone can have their say. You know, aid decision-making when crucial questions come up, like should we wage war on an initially harmless alien organism? Can’t we, God?’ Mudge said.
‘You are not entirely correct, Howard. I actually have the facility to run a system-wide referendum but it will take a little longer,’ God answered.
‘Seriously, Rolleston’s about to come in here, guys. Do we have time for this?’ I asked. Even I had got sucked into this argument. Nobody answered me.
‘Fine,’ Mudge said, slightly irritated at God. ‘Yes or no question. Once people have had a chance to look at the information as regards the Cabal do they still want to be controlled by these people? And if They want peace do we want it too? Vote, people,’ he invited.
‘And again we trust the alien computer virus because…’ Cronin asked.
‘Because everyone will know what they voted for. They can ask their friends and family, who will ask their friends and family, and so on. Hell, they can ask total strangers in the street.’
‘It won’t work. With every secret revealed people will pull themselves apart,’ Cronin said. ‘Every suspicion proved, think of all the scores that people will be able to settle.’ This was the first time I saw Mudge get angry during the whole thing. Up to this point I think he’d just been enjoying himself.
‘You’d fucking like that, wouldn’t you? But what if they don’t?
What if sixty years of conflict is enough? What if we cooperate now so that our children don’t have a life of violence?’
‘Someone will always take advantage,’ Cronin answered.
‘And now we can see them coming,’ Mudge countered. ‘You see, there’s no reason to not be calm. It’s over. We can see the strings and anytime anyone else ever tries to lie to us, control us for their own gains, we’ll see those strings as well. We know the truth. You can’t lie to make us afraid any more. We’re able to make decisions for ourselves now. Will there be pricks like you trying to take advantage? Of course there will, but everyone will see it. The thing is, what you think of as our weakness – our ability to not succeed in your terms – I think is our strength. Why would we want to live like you? Your power is smoke and relies on us anyway. Your existence relies on how much you’re able to fuck others over. Is that what you need to make yourself feel good? Is that your validation, your reason to exist, your measure of success? How fucking hollow. Most people just want to make their way, do their thing and look after themselves and their loved ones, but you won’t let us. You win because we divide. Well, now we’re connected. What are you going to do?’
Cronin was silent.
‘See, we’ve left the world’s infrastructure in place but you’ve got to go because this isn’t working. We can travel across the stars, we can rebuild the human body and we’re capable of feats of engineering like this Spoke, and we’re still killing each other for food. That’s not right,’ Mudge finished.
Cronin smiled smugly. ‘Well, stop doing it then,’ he said.
It looked like Mudge leant in but I guess he just did a close-up on himself, and suddenly his ugly face was massive around the world.
‘This is how we start. Consider yourself fired,’ he said. I reviewed the data on Cronin. He was on a luxury elevator on the Brazilian Spoke. I checked with God, making sure that the Brazilian authorities were waiting to pick him up. They were, then I made sure the Brazilian authorities had enough firepower to deal with Cronin, Kring and any other surprises they had. It looked like they did.
‘I mean, how do you do it?’ Mudge continued. ‘How do you justify sending millions of people to die? What do you need all the money and power for anyway? Surely it must reach a level where it becomes an abstract?’
Cronin let out a brief bitter laugh. ‘Because whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, this is how progress is made,’ he said.
Then Mudge did something that I thought was brave, risky and showed much more faith in people than I had, or I thought he had.
‘No, this how progress is made. God, show this twisted fuck our people,’ Mudge commanded. Cronin was now glaring at us from the viz screen but his features were replaced. It was a street scene, one of London’s many Ginzas. London was Mudge’s spiritual home. Thousands of people were on the street just watching the viz screen, then the picture shrank down to a tiny window and it was replaced by Washington, then Paris, Berlin, Nairobi, Pacifica, Berlin, Auckland -all the major cities of the world – and then smaller cities, faster and faster, towns and then individuals. People stood and watched in silence, people cried, people hugged and kissed, talked or just stared, looks of relief on their faces. Somehow Mudge had predicted this. Everyone looked tired but relieved. Some of them even dared to look happy. I realised how tired I was. I staggered over to the wall and began to slide down it. Morag was there to help me.
‘See, this isn’t a riot; it’s a great big fucking party, you twat. The war is over,’ Mudge said. I realised that Mudge may have spoken too soon but it felt good. I also realised as I watched image after image flicker up on the screen how much I really loved what was left of our fucked-up humanity.
‘The war is never over,’ Cronin said.
‘Give war a chance!’ Buck and Gibby sang together.
‘What? Rolleston? You think killing us is going to make a difference?’ Mudge asked.
‘No, but it might be worth focusing on now,’ I suggested.
‘You didn’t listen to MacDonald did you? With what we’ve learnt about biotechnology we’ll be more like gods. Like your whore,’ Cronin said.
Morag looked up. ‘Oh, do you mean me? See, there are a lot of things I wouldn’t do for money and power.’ She looked confused. ‘Sorry, who’s the whore?’
‘You’ve started the next great human conflict,’ he continued, oblivious to Morag’s jibe.
‘You’re issuing us an ultimatum?’ Mudge asked.
‘The combined colonial fleet cannot allow the net, perhaps Earth’s most important tactical asset, to remain in control of something that by its own admission is compromised by the enemy,’ Cronin said. ‘You must see that.’
‘Who are you to make that decision?’ I demanded, getting drawn in again despite myself and Rolleston’s imminent breach.
‘There is no enemy; they want peace!’ Morag shouted. She sounded desperate for Cronin to understand her, for him to see. I knew he did and it didn’t matter.