Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; Chapter 14 - 16

Chapter Fourteen

Jason is back in LA, in what seems to be early morning. The Las Vegas pols hand Jason and Ruth over to the LA pols and scram. As they are taken inside, Jason is trying to think about what he can say to the police general that does not sound like a lie or insanity.

Jason and Felix meet. Felix is a well dressed, nice as in friendly looking dude in his mid 50s with grey hair and expensive looking glasses. Felix puts Ruth aside for now and lets Jason into his office suite, which surprises Jason in its luxury. Felix says that it doesn't show up in photos, but guesses Jason is a Six. This is pretty thunderous to Jason, who asks if Felix is also a Six; Felix grinning holds up seven fingers.

Chapter Fifteen

We swap perspectives to Felix, who is feeling pretty smug. When surprised to be dealing with a Six, the lie that Felix is a Seven somehow always works. In the relation of power, this is necessary, as anybody not a Six's equal is an inferior, an "ordinary." But for some reason, the lie that Felix is a step *above* a six somehow works. He briefly remembers a conversation he and Alys had about this. I think there's also a reference to Kathy's kind of thinking, as Alys dismisses the whole thing - and somehow, this dislike causes the whole idea to stop existing as far as Alys is concerned.

Back in the General's plush office, he sells the lie a bit. Then Felix asks for breakfast to be brought in, then asks the question: how the hell did Jason wipe out all of his records?

(Note: I'm not skipping details any more than I usually do; the chapters have just gotten really short.) 

 Chapter 16

Jason been asked The Question by General Felix. He's fallen for the 7 thing, so his first impulse is to just tell the whole insane story...

But surprisingly, Jason suddenly feels angry. He doesn't want to tell Felix anything.

Given silence, Felix starts to speculate about a conspiracy of sixes, which gets Jason to volunteer that the only Six he knows is Heather Hart - and she thinks he's a twerp fan.

Felix is pleased; he had no idea Hart, famous singer and media personality, was a six. He suggests bringing Hart in to "consult" with the police on this - to which Jason responds, "sure, whatev, throw her in a labor camp." This is amusing to Felix. OK, so apparently all this genetic augmentation stuff was genetic engineers being funded by....the aristocrats. Y'see, the aristocrats apparently thought they were aristocrats by virtue of actually being better people, better breeding, etc. When they began to lose power, they started funding genetic engineering to "enhance" this superiority. So, despite being wrong about themselves, they ended up creating what they thought they were: genetically enhanced people. The scheme didn't work at all, because all these genetically enhanced people couldn't stand each other, and would flip on each other in a heartbeat in the type of situation Jason is in.

(New Deus Ex: here's your plot)

General Felix gets some swank cigars, and offers Jason one. Jason actually responds like a human, saying "I've never smoked a quality cigar, and if I got out of that..." Felix wants to know if he means got out of jail. Whatever rapport the two men were on the verge of is killed. Despite being a six, Jason is on the edge of exploding at Felix. Once again the General asks if Jason is well known to the literally underground intellectuals, and asks about musical strata. Jason says "not any more." Felix asks "have you ever made a record?" and Jason responds through clenched teeth "not here." He just doesn't answer when Felix asks "then where?"

Sensing he's getting nowhere, Felix presses his intercom and asks for Kathy to be brought in. Felix gets Jason to admit most of the info he had Kathy forge was real. Suddenly, somehow, Felix intuits that Jason didn't wipe out his data; he didn't have any to start with. Jason tells Felix that he doesn't exist, and doesn't really know how any of this is possible.

General Felix asks Jason to join him for breakfast ("c'mon, you got the munchies anyway."). A Grey uniform pol women brings in breakfast: eggs, pancakes and breakfast meat. Somehow the topic gets around to kids, and the General shows Jason a 3d of his son (a boy of about six, trying to get a kite off the ground.) Unfortunately, the boy's in Florida, and so he never did. The General and his wife live in LA. And because it is Jason's fate, the general gets around to the love of children. His wife says you can forget anything, except your love for a child. Also if something goes badly wrong, a death, a divorce, it sticks with you forever. For the second time in 24 hours, Jason concludes love just isn't worth it then. This actually gets the General a bit angry, Jason's lack of understanding. Felix blames it on Jason being a Six. But soon he settles, and says that the food in the Cafeteria at the police HQ is frequently poisoned; "I guess lots of the cafeteria staff have family in internment camps" Felix says, laughing. (And Felix directs the breakfast order from a "new" place; holy shit, he's exactly like trump, he's convinced without anonymity people will try to poison him "and that's why he always gets his McDonald's through the drive through")

The general informs Jason he's free to go. Being a police general, he cancels any crimes Jason might have committed. Like Kathy and the psychic hotel clerk, General Felix is satisfied Jason is actually telling the truth, as nonsensical as that is. He does say that now Jason is permanently under surveillance, and "if someday Jason finds out WTF, so will the police at the same time."

Jason thanks the General for the meal. He's composing himself again, now that terrible unknown consequences are not offering him cigars. Absolved of his sins, Jason is staying the night (OK, maybe its midnight or 2 AM? I thought it was almost dawn in Las Vegas) because it is police procedure not to let people go at night, but come the morning, Jason is walking out the front door of the HQ a free man.