Chapter 46 - Can I Play With Madness

Things were getting weirder for Felicity. It was like a delayed reaction empathic telepathy whenever she touched someones skin. But it was no longer limited to that. If she touched an object that had been recently touched by someone else she would get something. The words of Imogen came back to her: if you can fake madness you're sane. If you can't stop faking madness then you really are mad. As long as you can successfully fake sanity then you are sane. But if you can't switch that off then you'll drive yourself insane.

There was that other time that Imogen had spoken to her strangely. There was a power cut at school summer camp on the clearest of nights. The both laid down in a field to take in the view. It had been Imogen who spoke first. "We must be mad to make street lights which block out this view".

"Spot on sister."

"You know the time may come when you see society as a cage. Most who do this drive themselves crazy butting their heads against the bars, trying to tear it down. It's easier to pick the cage up and carry it with you or you can turn it into a bigger cage one bar at a time"

"Well looking out up there the Earth is a big enough cage for me."

"Such humble aspirations", sighed Imogen. "All you can see is your little world. Maybe that's why they have street lights."

Felicity snapped back to the present. Today's challenge was to fake sanity. It was the last few weeks of Year 12. Soon there would be no more school, ever. She gulped down her breakfast, surprisingly hungry. "Have you done my lunch?"

"As always."

Felicity picked up the tupperware, she got the sensation again. This is what Mothers heart felt like. Oh my God she's just as screwed up as I am. Felicity felt the urge to hug her and cry her eyes out. One bar of the cage at a time. She decided to be a little more understanding from now on instead.

Were it not for her enhanced memory Felicity would never had made up through her exams given what she was going through. Her results showed a remarkable improvement, but her yearly average dragged her out of university. The last words of her career adviser came back to her. "You obviously have the talent, show that kind of performance while doing a Cert IV at TAFE and you can skip the first year of uni. No time lost."

TAFE started in February. She had two months to really drill down on her new ability while waitressing in the fast food halls. The meteorite that she cut herself on wasn't just a random rock. Apart from giving her enhanced biology there was a message. The rock and its microbial content was a piece of technology created by a terrifying consciousness. That's as far as she could go. Imogen could, however, go somewhat further.

New World Explorations was a hive of activity. Daniel was tasked into digging into NASA's computers to find out exactly what research they were referring to. He called Lü Zhi and they met in the Faraday room. "I'm pretty sure I've nailed it Ma'am. NASA has got our nanobot technology. This was uploaded into their computers from the Wellington Hotel, Manhattan by Carolyn Gray, a freelancing industrial spy. She met with John in Starbucks, their movements parallel each others and CCTV footage show them walking down 7th Avenue together. There was also 700 million dollars deposited into Johns' XRP crypto account."

Lü Zhi gritted her teeth in fury. "It's not often I share my feelings. Trading secrets is an unpleasant reality and so are the punishments that have to be met out. If a competitor steals your secret and achieves greatness then you've done your bit to help the march of progress of your nation. But this trade is different. Because of John's action humanity has taken a step back. He has done more than betray the company, he has betrayed his species - the whole planet in fact because he had reduced funding to the only organisation that is making satisfactory progress with space colonisation. Tell no one of these tasks, what you found out or this meeting. None of it ever took place." She left the room.