Shutdown (Glitch)

the council. “Nothing will be decided today on this issue. We need to regroup after today’s events, recoup losses, and keep our heads down. As Colonel Garabex said, we’re barely managing to survive as it is. Being too hasty at this point would only jeopardize the tenuous grip we still have. And when we do reach the point where we can consider new proposals on how to proceed, keep in mind the Council must agree unanimously before any action is taken.”
    Garabex scowled. “We were in unison about the EMP option before this upstart showed up. It was Taylor’s idea in the first place. It’s her vote that should count, even from beyond the grave.”
    “The fact that she appointed me in her place is proof enough that she had doubts about the plan.” I wasn’t sure if it was true, but it sounded good. Besides, I knew some of the others had hesitations about the EMP option. They wouldn’t want it back on the table unless there was absolutely nothing left to try.
    Garabex looked like he was about to launch into another tirade, but Lonyi spoke up before he could. “What do we do then? The Rez is the smallest it’s ever been. Underchancellor Bright is cracking safe houses right as we set them up. She always seems three steps ahead of us. We’ve already tried having Zoe crush the V-chips of small populations at a time, but that didn’t work.”
    I grimaced, remembering the experiment. With my telek, I was able to reach and crush the tiny embedded chips in about a hundred people at a time. So we’d infiltrated an Academy, hoping we could add to our diminishing ranks, but Regs had quickly descended and captured all the confused teenagers right after I’d freed them from the V-chip. We’d only been able to rescue a few before having to escape ourselves.
    “If we don’t do something,” Lonyi continued, her voice impassioned, “then there will be no Rez left to speak of soon. We have to act now before we don’t have the manpower to enact any plans we come up with!”
    “The Underchancellor is the problem,” Talon said. “It’s her we need to take out.”
    I nodded. He was right. Every attempt we’d made so far had failed. She was surrounded at all times by fifty Regs and an impressive band of glitchers she’d collected.
    But there was still one thing we hadn’t tried—sending me in alone to try to assassinate her.
    It would be risky. Maybe even a suicide mission. I’d wanted to exhaust every other possibility before I suggested it, but if it was that or letting them go ahead with the EMP option …
    Sanyez held up her hand. “We can talk about that next week when we reconvene. Right now we need to recoup, count our losses, and rest. Ali will send you the encryption pattern an hour before the next meeting as always. We must be more vigilant than ever about security protocols. Next year in freedom,” she finished, the standard council salutation.
    “Freedom for all,” we all responded back. Everyone in the Rez had grown up with the saying. It was always next year, never now.
    After I switched off the camera I sighed out a long breath and ran my hands through my still-wet hair. When I got up to walk to the Med Center, my steps were heavy. My whole body felt like lead. I didn’t want to think about any of it, any of the responsibilities of knowing the Rez was getting smaller every day or worrying about the refugees who would no doubt come clamoring to me tomorrow with more problems I didn’t have a solution to. I wished I had an off switch so I could stop caring about all of it.
    In spite of how I’d just avowed how important life and morality was, sometimes I worried that I was turning into General Taylor. I remembered when I first met her, I’d been shocked by her coldness. She seemed callous, uncaring about other people’s feelings, and, in the end, unconcerned with sacrificing millions of people. But she hadn’t been afraid of death either. She took on her duty as a mantle to the last moment when she’d decided to come with me against the Chancellor. Her last thought had been for the future of the Rez.
    I headed into the hallway and heard other footsteps echoing down the parallel corridor. I knew even without seeing him that it was the Professor. He paced the hallways now at night, like a ghost. He must hear me too on the nights I couldn’t sleep, but we kept to our separate hallways and never spoke of it. We insomniacs kept each other’s secrets.
    I listened to him now, aimlessly