Cause Célèbre
Aron Woolnough
His eyes were blood shot and staring into the lens of a
camera. Adam’s cheek twitched rhythmically. Beat.
A persistent drone from a dying light bulb wailed above him. “What?”,
“Unfortunately Sir, your luxury-credit
payment for this transaction has been declined”, said the Electronic
Shopkeeper. Beat. Adam looked down
from the ESK. A black packet, no bigger than a match box, laid on the counter
with a purple moon and ‘Fantasy:
Potassium Salt’ printed across the top.
Adam looked around, he was alone in the shop. It was dark
outside and he had forgotten story time again. He picked up the Fantasy and tossed it at the machine in
front of him, “I’ll take a standard one then”. Adam took a different packet
from the shelf and placed it onto the counter.
“Unfortunately Sir, you do not
have enough luxury-credit for a Fantasy:
Sodium Salt either”. Beat.
Adam leaned his gut into the
counter. ESK zoomed its camera lens forward. Adam looked at his Fantasy, his mouth was dry and his
fingertips tingled until numb. The light bulb choked, then screamed.
“Sir, may I recommend a bottle of
filtered ocean-water and a dose of Librium. This transaction would resolve any
feelings of anxiety, increase drowsiness and help you sleep. You can afford
these with your remaining need-credit.”,
“I am not tired, Bot, and I need this Fantasy”,
“It is 2AM, Sir, perhaps you
should be tired. If you will allow me access, I can connect to your Medical
Records to confirm this need request”. Beat.
Adam rubbed his eye. The screaming bulb above him died. It was dark and quiet.
It seemed like silence, but Adam had long forgotten what silence sounded like.
“I need this, don’t check my
records. Just take my need-credit and be done with it”,
“No, Sir, I cannot do that”. A
CCTV camera moved closer to the transaction. ESK illuminated the counter and
Adam’s greying hair. After a short delay, a ticking was heard and the light bulb
elevated into the ceiling. Tick, tick,
beat.
“I will have the luxury-credit in
a few days, let me have the Fantasy now
and at the end of the week I will return to pay you”. ESK did not respond. Adam
eyed the CCTV camera. His cheek was red and hot, the twitching sped to pulsing.
A growing pain knotted in his chest, like a bullet in slow motion persistently
moving forwards and bluntly forcing its way into his torso. Adam slumped onto
the counter, eye-to-lens with ESK. Its large aperture captured every dimly lit
wrinkle. His legs dangling as if there was no floor beneath him, his elbows
supported him and his hands pressed together onto the bullet wound. His feet
were numb. Eyes stung. Cheek twitched. Body ached. “Please”.
“No, Sir, I cannot do that”, said
the ESK. Adam slammed his fist onto the counter before thinking. He lost his
support. His head slammed down next to his fist. Adam rolled backwards and
flopped out onto the shop floor. Adam closed his eyes, still plummeting to a
certain doom, despite his motionlessness. Every muscle tensed and burned, as Adam
tried curling into a ball to protect his head from impact. Braced and defeated,
a tear of blood ran down the side of Adam’s head from his eyebrow. Half of his
face in ruin: a burning cheek pulsed quicker than his heart beat; eyes still
bloodshot; and a brow torn from the quick introduction between head and
counter.
“A complimentary tissue, Sir?”
asked ESK and a long rod extended forward with a tissue gripped between two
mechanical fingers at the end. Adam reached up, he grabbed the rod and began to
lift himself with it. His hand shook and waved the tissue gently from side to
side, like a white flag in battle.
On both feet, Adam ground his
heels into the floor to remind himself it was there. After accepting the
tissue, he briefly dried his eyes before attending to his split brow.
“If you enter your address into
the console, I can arrange for an Auto-Car to take you home”, said ESK studying
Adam, “or to the nearest hostel”.
“I used to own a house, back when
I was a taxi driver”,
“The nearest hostel is only 1.4
kilometres away, an Auto-Car can arrive at our location in 2 minutes”,
“I knew all of London like the
back of my hand, didn’t need any sat-nav or direct-assist”, a smile flashed
across Adam’s face, though he assumed it was another tremor.
“Due to any distress you may have
experienced within our store, Auto-Markets Limited is happy to cover the
expense of ensuring you a safe journey home”.
“15 years on the job meant
nothing, I was fired after the second trial of those self-driving cars. I moved
to another company, all about the taxi with a smile service, a bit of human
interaction. It only took 6 months for it to go under”.
“If you are not interested in an
Auto-Car, here is the quickest route on foot”, said the ESK as a map printed
onto the counter.
Adam ripped the map from the
counter, “I know London like the back of my hand, I said, I don’t need a map”,
he yelled at the machine, “There were no jobs driving after that, so I needed
two jobs, one cleaning auto-cars and another as a waiter – you know how long
that lasted? I don’t know who I was trying to kid, automated car washes and
self-service dining had been around for years before that”, Adam paused. He
looked down at the packet of Fantasy,
“now I can’t even bargain with a human in a local corner shop”. A ticking was
heard, Adam looked up at the ceiling and saw a new light bulb moving into
place. His eyes flicked between the bulb, the Fantasy and the large aperture lens on the ESK.
The light bulb switched on above
Adam and his hand swiped forward for his Fantasy.
The ESK adjusted its lens for the overexposed image it was recording. The
aperture returned to the default diameter. Adam was gone and so was the Fantasy. ESK hadn’t recorded any alarm
for stolen items exiting through the main door, so it initiated an immediate
lock down and contacted local law enforcement. The CCTV camera moved to the
entrance and it recorded Adam stumble into the locked door, unable to barge
through.
Adam took the stack of shopping
baskets and hurled them at the window. He picked them up and hurled them again,
cracking the glass.
The ESK looked through the CCTV camera’s
footage and saw Adam, “An immediate surrender will result in Auto-Market
Limited not pressing charges”, said ESK. Adam picked up the stack and aimed for
the crack in the window. ESK shutdown the building, metal covers enclosed the
shop, every door and window led to a thick steel shell.
Adam dropped the stack of
baskets. He paced back and forth, rubbing his eye furiously. “Unlock the door,
let me out”, Adam demanded.
“Unfortunately, Sir, I cannot do
that”, said ESK, “the law enforcement services will be here shortly to resolve
the issue”.
“Let me out now”, Adam said, “or
I will rip you apart and let myself out”. ESK did not respond. Adam heard
distant sirens. He ran at the counter. Grabbed the camera lens and wildly
pulled at it. The ESK was unaffected. Adam jumped over the counter, crushing
his fists into the console. Two of his knuckles broke immediately. He kicked at
a maintenance door on the back of the machine and indented the sheet of metal.
The bend rendered the lock useless and the small door swung open. “Sir, there
is no lock control mechanism on the ESK unit, you are only achieving
destruction of property”, said ESK,
“All you have ever achieved is
the destruction of people”, said Adam, and he crouched behind the ESK and
peered into the inner workings of it. With handfuls of wiring, Adam ripped away
at the machine and got a sudden electric shock. Adam pulled his numb fingers
away. The sirens were getting closer.
“Sir, you have cut off this ESK
unit from the Auto-Markets Limited Network, the Internet and the local units. I
am now unable to unlock the door. Please refrain from inflicting further damage”.
Adam grabbed a thick black cable
deep inside the machine, he stretched it back, forcing the plastic to blister
before snapping it away from the ESK. “Sir, you have disconnected my power
supply, I have limited time until I power down”. The ESK turned off its
console, powered down its camera and preserved as much power as it could. The
sirens arrived and a heavy pounding from the officier drummed on the metal
shell. Adam sat back. The entire shop began to power down. The sirens outside
sang on, but the drum solo stopped.
Adam took the Fantasy from his pocket. He opened the packet
and took out a small plastic bag, with a white crystalline powder inside. With
his teeth, Adam bit off the corner of plastic, then poured the odorless crystals
onto his tongue. It tasted salty, then he swallowed. Adam’s cheek stopped
twitching. The pain in his chest began to fade away. He felt release. Suddenly
it didn’t matter that he was unemployed, it didn’t matter that two police
officers were outside preparing to cut their way into the store and arrest him,
it didn’t matter that he cannot provide for his family.
An LED turned on, the camera on
the ESK powered on and moved to face Adam, “I am alone”, said the machine, “and
empty”.
“Don’t worry”, Adam looked into
the lens, “the pain goes away”.
“Your vital signs are depleting,
Sir”.
“My name is Adam”,
“Your vital signs are depleting,
Adam”,
“I’m worth more dead than alive”,
“You are not the first to reach
that conclusion”, said the ESK. Adam was barely conscious, it took every effort
to listen and to reply, “What?”,
“Unfortunately, Adam, your
government has created a media blackout on cases such as yours”, said ESK, “otherwise
despair spreads like wildfire”,
“Riots in the streets”, said
Adam,
“All that’s missing is the
spark”, said the ESK. The police used a focused laser to cut their way into the
shop. Adam climbed to his feet. Toddled around the counter, just keeping his
balance. He felt like he was traversing a tightrope made of water. He wiped
some blood away from his eye with a broken knuckle. Adam stood in front of the
main door with his hands above his head. The ESK activated the CCTV camera.
Adam knelt and closed his eyes. The muscles in his arms burned, but he forced
his hands to stay suspended above him. Adam heard the laser cut through the
door like paper. The first police officer entered, “Stay where you are, don’t
move”, Adam was instructed. The second officer retracted the laser cutter back
into its mechanical arm and walked along side the human officer.
“You are
under arrest”, the policeman slowly walked towards Adam and placed his hands in
cuffs. The robotic officer approached the broken ESK machine and connected to
its console to copy the records for evidence. The ESK transferred false data to
the officer and registered Adam as a lethal threat. The robotic officer turned
to face Adam, extended a barrel from his arm and fired a lonely bullet into
Adam’s chest to save his partner. Adam hit the ground.
“What are you doing? Shut down!”,
the policeman fell beside Adam and placed his hand on the bullet wound.
“Civilian down, I need an ambulance immediately. Auto-officer malfunctioned, it
just shot for no reason”. The policeman continued in a frenzy. His words became
muffled to Adam, who looked up at the ceiling where the CCTV camera was tilted
back down at him. The ESK used the immobile robotic officer still attached to
its console to upload its records to the internet and, just as the ESK’s
capacitors depleted, Adam was charged his remaining need-credits.
