Near Swift Current, Saskatchewan CANADA | Tuesday, April 8 2070 | 12:05 am CDT
Newton Hiltz did not go home that night. He was incredibly disgruntled and knew that something bigger was in play. Instead of returning to his bungalow, he had pointed his car East. He was going to get to Ottawa and talk to the Prime Minister about what he had really allowed when he made Newton’s device mandatory to be worn by everyone.
Newton himself had not accounted for this when he made the device. He wished he had never been able to come up with the successful prototype. He blamed himself profusely and became depressed. He needed to lighten the mood. The situation was dire, but if he did not have a cool head, Newton would not be able to remedy anything.
He sent an audio message to jennifer. She would pick it up on her HOLO device and hopefully respond to him the next time she got a chance. Newton hoped that chance was soon. Since Newton’s Mazda Zoom was in manual mode, it would not be safe to have a HOLO conversation while he was driving. Newton would put it in automatic mode, but he had a lot of ground to cover in a very short amount of time. Newton needed all the speed he could get.
The prairies flew by. Newton raced on into the night. Jennifer had still not answered him.
To put his mind at ease, Newton scanned the UltraNet for some music to listen to. In times gone by, people on long drives used to scan radio waves with receivers in their cars in order to accomplish the same goal. The UltraNet changed all that.
Newton selected a play list, “The Hits of Right Now”. Standard radio stations had also been eliminated years ago and replaced with individually uploaded, publicly accessible lists of songs.
Newton was greeted with a steady bongo drum beat. The front man for this band started grunting followed by a chorus of moans from female background singers.
Newton skipped through the playlist, there were subtle variations but the concept was the same. Newton was downcast. He remembered his father telling him stories about how bands used to actually sing and play real musical instruments. You could understand the words and the message that the artist was trying to get across. Things were different now. Newton wished he could have been around for those days. Newton gave up on the UltraNet and searched his portable files for his Audio Bible. He let that play. Nobody was in the car with him, so he would not get in trouble for listening to it.
As Newton approached Ottawa, He had made it through the entire New Testament. Newton was used to the voice in the audio book and had it set to speak as fast as possible.
After reading through the book of Romans, Newton was convinced that now was the best time to give his life over to Jesus Christ. For real. He had been toying with the idea for a while but this time he was serious.
Newton would need the Lord’s leading for what was about to happen next. He had a nagging feeling that he should go back to Calgary, but Newton pressed on. He knew that what he was about to do was more important than the comforts of home.
And why had he still not heard from Jennifer?
***
Calgary, Alberta CANADA | Tuesday, April 8 2070 | 5:00 am MDT
Zeke Sabates and Nicholas Fyfe sat in Fyfe’s bunker astonished.
“The Force Thought did not work on Newton?” exclaimed Zeke.
“It appears he was able to will it away” said Fyfe
“He does have the most experience dealing with the device” informed Zeke.
“Who cares? I have the entire country at my beck and call waiting for him at Parliament Hill. It will take a lot of convincing for Newton to change their minds. Society is easily impressionable as long as you’re in the majority. Fortunately for us.”