The Cleansing – (The Sequel to Judgement): Amazon.co.uk: Forsythe, Ron: 9798278914952: Books
Sci-fi for me is a way to explore the real world and real people. I don’t write space opera. My heroes are Philip K Dick and Robert Sheckley. I like it grounded in insightful realism.
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Billy was also caught up in an inferno. Except his was a joy and he was blossoming. The flames of dissent were igniting in his head and being fanned by millions of followers making him feel energised and indestructible. The momentum was building and Billy found himself gathering dissenters like a mighty avalanche careering down a mountainside building as it went. Billy was caught up in it like a fly trapped on a treacle trap, except he was basking in every minute of it. All his time was devoted to the movement – trawling the net, gathering the latest gossip, theories, gripes and information, distilling it into a series of blogs and rants. He’d purchased software and hardware and harnessed Dom the Geek from down the road to set it up. His and Charlene’s bedroom had been transformed into a studio. Now he ran a daily podcast in which he shared his ‘wisdom’. There was no shortage of help. Donations were flooding in. He could afford to do it right – the best cameras and microphones – a real professional job.
Gone were the days of standing on the bar at the Ashley addressing a measly hundred or so, or even holding a meeting at the community centre to address hundreds; he was now on line with an audience in the millions. There wasn’t a hall big enough to accommodate them. Billy had discovered that he had a knack for this podcasting; he just poured out all the stuff he’d picked up and gave it his ‘Smythe charm’. Everyone was suitably impressed at how natural he was – like he’d always played with microphones. Charly had always said he had the gift of the gab.
‘You’re a dark horse,’ Charly chortled. ‘Who’d have thought that you had it in you?’ She was checking out the hits on Billy’s latest rant. The numbers were going through the ceiling.
‘It needs doing,’ Billy replied, a slight modest blush tinging his cheeks. ‘We can’t let these lizards steal out bloody country, Charly.’
‘There’s a lot of people feel the same,’ Charly observed, looking at the latest figures. ‘The trouble is what can we actually do about it?’
‘I’m working on that,’ Billy replied with a smug look on his face.
‘Billy, what are you up to?’
‘We can’t just sit around and moan, can we?’
Charly looked sideways at him. Billy wasn’t a deep thinker. She knew that. He had trouble booking a restaurant for an anniversary surprise.
‘There’s this guy on the web,’ Billy explained. ‘Likes to keep in the background. Some rich geezer. Chucks in most of the readies. He’s as pissed off with the lizards as I am.’
‘And what’s he going to do with anything?’ Charly enquired doubtfully.
‘He’s full of ideas. Things I’d never have thought off. They’re dragging people off to these camps and wiping their brains, you know? The ones they’re not bumping off. He thinks we have to do something about it’
‘I’ve read all that,’ Charly muttered. ‘Don’t know if it’s really true.’
‘It’s true. This guy is sending me stuff. I’ve got the pictures to prove it. They’re ending up like zombies. Their brains wiped clean. He sent me photos. They look like they’re on fentanyl.’
‘And where’s he getting these photos from?’
‘He has contacts.’
She looked at him questioningly. Billy could be a bit gullible at times.
‘I dunno,’ Charly said thoughtfully. ‘They’ve rounded up a right bunch. I never liked the look of that Musk and Farage and their ilk. Glad to see the back of them.’ She chuckled. ‘I don’t even mind if their brains are turned to mush.’
‘Farage is alright,’ Billy protested. ‘A man of the people.’
‘Man of the people my arse,’ Charly sneered. ‘A fucking merchant banker with the gift of the gab who’s jumped on the bandwagon to easy street.’
Billy kept quiet. Farage was one of the few things they disagreed on.
‘So what are the big ideas then?’
‘Well,’ Billy shifted around, ‘protests and stuff.’
‘Protests and stuff?’
‘You know, marches and protests at the camps.’
‘You don’t even know where the camps are.’
‘Yes I do. He’s sent me the details.’ Billy was indignant. ‘There’s one at Clacton. Used to be an old holiday camp and then army base. They’ve taken it all over and put up these huts. He’s sent me photos.’ Billy was enthusiastic.
Charly looked sceptical. ‘What are you going to do there?’
‘We’re gonna march down and have a protest at the camp.’
‘And you’re organising this.’
‘I am,’ Billy said, looking pleased with himself. ‘I’m putting out the stuff this week. I’ve been preparing it.’ He showed Charlene the material he had stashed away in a file on his computer. There was a lot. She trawled through the headlines, photos, posters and details with a wary eye. This looked professional, not at all like Billy’s work. ‘I tell you Charly, we’re putting England at the centre of the whole fucking world!’
‘Looks really impressive,’ Charly remarked with a hint of doubt. ‘What’s all this about trains and busses?’
‘This guy says he will lay on special trains and coaches to take people to the place, even laying on fucking planes to bring people from abroad. We’re expecting thousands,’ he was excited. ‘He’s doing banners and all sorts. All I’ve got to do is publicise it through my blog, stir up interest. He’ll do the rest. Amazing eh?’
Charly fixed him with a wary eye. ‘You be careful you don’t get yourself brain wiped, Billy.’
Chameakegra was in her quarters checking through the material Neff had sent through to her. There were gigabytes of the stuff – all the details on each and every Hydran who had been extracted. The descriptions were graphic, highlighting their personality defects and crimes against humanity.
Judge Booghramakegra was right. This was nuclear. Surely if all this information was released every Hydran would clearly see that they had ample grounds for excising them from society. These people were sick. What they had been doing was criminal. They were the reason the whole world was in such a grave mess.
By removing them Hydran society had an opportunity to heal. People would be able to see that. This could change the balance of opinion. All Hydrans would see why they were doing it.
All that remained to be done was to decide how to release this massive body of material. There was far too much for anyone to read through. But was that necessary? They could dip in to select certain individuals of interest. By seeing the despicable activities of some characters, and having the whole body of information to back that up, they would surely see that the reasons were valid? The guilty ones had to be dealt with.
Even so there remained nagging doubts. Chameakegra had come to realise that many Hydrans were not rational beings. No matter what evidence they were provided with they tended to stick to their own prejudices. That couldn’t be helped. They believed or they didn’t. She had to put that down to the way Hydran’s minds operated. At least a percentage would be won over. She had to hope it was a large percentage. One thing she was sure of was that it could not do any harm. Let some of them believe that it was all made up. There was little she could do about that. It was no good worrying about lost causes.
So what was the best way to get the information out to the widest audience? That was easy. She would ask Neff to release it to all media outlets and simultaneously send it out on all social media and communication platforms. Let them pick over it and select the morsels they found most interesting.
She set about producing a short introduction to accompany the release:
Dear Hydrans,
I am releasing the raw data that provides the justification for why we have extracted a large number of your citizens. There are a variety of criteria we have applied. Our investigations have been thorough and in depth. We have identified all those guilty of the following crimes against humanity:
Committing or instigating violence
Corruption and bribery
Greed
Racism, sexism and misogyny
Religious and/or political extremism
Indoctrination and brainwashing
Crime
Wanton destruction of the environment
It is our contention that these people are mentally or emotionally ill. Their illness has detrimentally impacted on your society. By removing these antisocial individuals we are enabling your society to heal.
The individuals that we have removed are not being punished; they are being cured of their various illnesses. When their rehabilitation is complete they will be returned to you unharmed and no longer suffering from their antisocial attitudes.
I hope this clarifies our actions for you.
Chameakegra – Commander of the Hydra Mission
When she had completed everything she had a moment’s reflection; should she involve Grrndakegra or Beheggakegri? Grrndakegra was joint Commander. Surely she needed to be updated? Yes. But not before the material had circulated.
She pasted Grrndakegra, Beheggakegri and Judge Booghramakegra into the release. Her claw hovered over it for a second, then the button was pressed, Neff received her instructions and the massive file of documents was on its way.