He asked, “Why does InnerVoice sometimes fail?”
“We don’t know that, either. We think that the body’s defense system overcomes it, like it was an infection. Maybe maladapts have better defense systems than most people.”
“Just like some people have spontaneous remissions from cancer, maybe.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
They walked on until they came to a small park by the river’s edge. There was a bench, and they sat. Lights on the other shore reflected as long wavering lines on the water. There were no boats on the river, no barges. In another universe this was an industrial town, but here it was a dull administrative center.
“I usually come here at nights when the weather’s nice,” she said. “I like to watch the river go by. It comes from somewhere and goes somewhere, away from here. I like to think about taking a little boat and going out on the water, and letting the river carry me away. I’d never leave the boat. I’d just fish, lie in the sun, do nothing all day.”
“What do you do all day?”
“I sit and type on a keyboard. I key in data, and then I ask the computer to report on the data, and it spews out all kinds of stuff at me. Fun.”
“Yeah, sounds like it. Tell me this. How many other maladapts are there?”
“I only know two, but there are more. Don’t ask me their cognomen-omnicodes, because I don’t trust you well enough yet. You might be InnerVoice.”
“You mean I might be a police agent?”
“There are no police. But I’ve heard of people being arrested by the Committee for Constant Struggle.”
“The army.”
“Yes. They sometimes use agents to trick people. Or so I’ve heard. It may be all lies, though. You never know. You can never know what’s truth and what isn’t.”
“Let me ask you something very basic and crucial. Who’s in charge of the government? Who runs this whole nightmare?”
“I don’t know. We’ve been trying to figure it out for years. All we know is that there’s InnerVoice.”
“But someone invented InnerVoice. Someone used it to control people. Who was it?”
She shrugged.
He asked, “How long has InnerVoice been in control?”
“No one knows that, either. Years and years.”
“Isn’t there any history?”
“What’s history?”
He looked out across the river. Darkness and silence and slow-moving water.
Her hand sought his.
“Let’s go back,” she said. “My place.”
“Are you sure?”
She giggled. “I’ve had an order to get pregnant for months now. I’ve been ignoring it. Couldn’t find anyone I wanted to get pregnant with.”
Now he knew how it was done. An order was issued, an order was obeyed.
Light came through the lone window and made a trapezoid on the bare floor beside the bed. Lying on his side, he studied it. He liked its lambent geometry, its two-dimensional clarity.
“Are you awake?” she asked.
“Yes.” He rolled over to face her.
She asked him, “What are you thinking?”
“Of how to get out of this place.”
“This place? You mean the living complex?”
“I mean this world.”
“How can you get out of the world? That’s silly.”
“No, it isn’t. I know a way to get to a different world.”
“A different world,” she said dreamily. “Do you think there are worlds other than this one?”
“Yes, there are any number of them. And I can get you to a pretty nice one. It’s just a matter of getting outside the city a little ways.”
“How would you do that?”
“I don’t know. Walk, take a bus. Steal a vehicle. It doesn’t matter. The main question in my mind is, can I do it without InnerVoice interfering?”
“You should be able to. You wouldn’t be able to sleep with me if you still had InnerVoice.”
“How could you get pregnant if no one was able to sleep with you?”
“If they had an order, they could.”
“You need an order?”
“Sure. You didn’t find the order to impregnate someone on your schedule, did you?”
“No.”
“Well, then. You wouldn’t be able to sleep with me unless InnerVoice was dead inside you.”
“Then that means there’s nothing preventing me from leaving.”
“Not if you actually have someplace to go. You say you do, but I don’t understand how. InnerVoice is in control outside the city, too.”
“I can get to a place where no one ever heard of InnerVoice.”
“Is there such a place? There are stories, rumors.”
“Rumors of what?”
“That there are Outpersons who wage war against InnerVoice.”
“Where?”
“No one knows. It’s rarely talked about. Just sometimes on the Information Specials they’ll mention something about ‘socially irresponsible outside elements.’ That’s how they phrase it, usually.”
“Rebels? An opposing military force of some kind?”
“Don’t know.”
It suddenly struck him that he didn’t even know this woman’s name. Wait; she didn’t have a name, only a nonsensical and dehumanizing jumble of letters and numbers. He really didn’t want to know what her cognomen was, much less her omnicode.
“Alice.”
She said, “What did you say?”
“I just gave you a name. Alice. You look like one.”
“‘Alice.’ That’s pretty.”
“So are you.”
“That’s unsocial. No one is better looking than anyone else.”
“That’s a lie. Alice, listen. I’m going to leave here and I want to take you with me. Do you want to come?”
“Go with you?”
“Yes.”
“To this other place, this other world you talked about?”
“Yes. Do you want to come with me?”
She was silent for a long time.
Then she said: “You know, I was thinking about doing it tonight. Jumping into the river.”
“You wanted to kill yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes. But I think about it a lot. Just jumping in and letting the water carry me away.”
“Drowning.”
“Of course. Killing yourself is the most unsocial thing you can do, and I wanted to do it tonight. And then … I met you. And now you want to take me away.”
“Come with me, Alice. We’ll live in a big castle.”
