Fraud

After the IPU discovered Ezri’s access to the Admin System, they completely collapsed. It was astonishing. Over 20 thousand government workers and officials we have, all with years of experience taking care of and securing this nation – yet at least two-thirds have been hospitalized for mental breakdowns. Even most of those who remain are too hesitant to join the task force, and they’re too busy picking up the slack of the others anyway.

The incompetency is driving me up a wall – and the most aggravating part is that Ezri is beating us just by… Existing. It’s been ten days since, but she hasn’t left HQ, despite having the perfect opportunity to do so with the golems down and the IPU in shambles. It’s like she gave Dad that stupid call just to toy with us.

“Wow, I’ve never seen you look so grumpy,” Shiloh says to me, poking my cheek. We’re riding the monorail to university.

Her observation sends a pang through my body. I’ve been so unlike myself, what’s wrong with me? I remember my MME score of 98 points, and thinking about how worse it could get the next time I take it, my expression shifts from angry to “normal” – calm and collected, as it should always be.

“What are you talking about? I’m fine.”

She pokes me again. “Hmm, I dunno – you may have to end up with Jasper,” she says with a sly grin.

“Don’t be ridiculous, that’ll never happen…” I cross my arms and gaze out the window, the monorail speeding past our surroundings. “How is Jasper, anyway?”

“Fine, actually! They’re releasing him today, no facility or anything.”

That’s both relieving and surprising. It’s not that I don’t have faith in Jasper— well, no, that’s somewhat true. He’s never been the toughest, to say the least. Regardless, I was expecting very few to be sent back home.

“What caused a change?”

“Weeell… I reminded him that a certain someone would never go out with him if he stayed like that,” she nudges my arm with her elbow. “He started getting better real quick after that.”

I sigh. “So, you gave him false hope. How kind of you.”

“I mean, is it? You never know!”

Yeah, right. No offense, Jasper.

The monorail stops outside the school, the Institute of Laws and Sciences. At the entrance and in all corners are golems. Because of Ezri’s breach, the IPU has sent golems to patrol vulnerable areas in case of emergency. Since the university is home to the country’s most important research team, directed by Professor Katz, it’s a place to be protected.

Shiloh and I approach the golem at the front. A scanner shoots out from its eyes as soon as our feet touch the threshold, and it examines us from head to toe, searching for any significant detection of unease or distress. “Proceed,” the bot says once we’re in the clear. The people behind us go through the same process.

“How long are you going to leave me hanging for?” Shiloh whispers to me. “Something’s happened, right?”

I’d rather not tell anyone outside the IPU, but Shiloh’s already one of the “lucky ones” to know about Ezri – plus, she’ll just keep pestering about it if I don’t give in. I reluctantly lead her to a more secluded spot, a small alley in between two school buildings. Shiloh listens intently as I tell her about everything Ezri did, including how hard she laughed at the idea of the IPU’s plan and prepared me for a “rude awakening,” whatever that nonsense meant.

“Why don’t they just change the code?” she asks.

“They can’t. The Queen is at Headquarters, remember?”

The Queen is a supercomputer located under the dome of HQ’s top floor. It serves as the host of all the networks that keep our country running, including the Admin System. If someone wanted to change the Admin System’s code, they’d need to do so through the Queen. Fortunately, Ezri will never be able to so that – it requires facial recognition to unlock, and it’ll only accept the president. But since Dad obviously isn’t around there, we can’t get a new code.

“Soo… We’re screwed, then…”

“No, Shiloh, we’ll be okay. How many times do I have to tell you?”

“Goodbye, world! It was nice knowing you!” Shiloh says dramatically, spreading out her arms into the air and feigning distraught. She’s such a kid.

Before I can talk some sense into her, my eyes suddenly zone in on a poster pasted to the brick wall. It’s from the school’s newspaper committee, and no way should it be on display like this. “Rumors of Mental Decline,” the headline reads on the advertisement. I snatch it off and crumble it into a ball, tossing it into the nearest trash bin.

“Geez, did you have a grudge against the paper or something— Hey! Where are you going?”

There’s no time to explain. The press club is all the way on the other side of campus on the third floor of the study hall, so I make a run for it. What they’re doing isn’t only unbelievably dumb, it’s dangerous. Are they insane? They know coverage like this is prohibited, only the IPU themselves are allowed to spread such news. Without stopping to catch my breath, or even to warn other students to step aside before bumping into them, I sprint across the field, down sidewalks, and up flights of stairs. When finally reaching the glass doors leading into their clubroom, I shove them open with no second to spare, just before a guy was about to lock them for a meeting.

“Um, hey? I’m sorry, but we’re kinda in the middle of something—"

“Save it. Where’s your chief editor? I need to talk to them immediately.”

“Ahem,” a girl says, who is seated at the end of the long table in the room. She’s looking at me with narrow eyes. “That’d be me. What do you want?”

I stride closer to the table with an emboldened sense of authority as I say, “Care to explain your recent article? ‘Rumors of Mental Decline?’”

“What’s there to ‘explain?’ We wrote a story, we printed it.”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. This is illegal.”

The girl laughs and whips out a tablet from her bag. She approaches me confidently, showing me the opened message on the screen. It reads in bold lettering, “ORDER FOR PUBLICATION,” which is what is sent to any press organization – including simple university ones – when the IPU wants news to be distributed. To my surprise, they were specifically instructed to release such an article, describing everything about the spike in hospitalizations and decreased productivity within the government. Why would the IPU approve this, knowing what could happen?

But my surprise soon turns to appall when I see the address from which it was sent, Headquarters.

I take a deep breath, trying to gather my thoughts. They’ll obviously look at me like I’m crazy if I tell them to ignore the order, might even call the police on me. After all, they don’t know Headquarters is hijacked, and me suggesting to disobey them would be an offense.

“Trying to get us sent away like Dan, huh?” The chief editor retorts with a snarky attitude. With the way she’s acting, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the one who sent me that text. “You just don’t know when to quit.”

“Listen, this is clearly a mistake. Think rationally for a minute, wouldn’t the IPU handle information like this themselves?”

“I have a friend who goes to another school, the IPU sent them the same order,” says the boy at the door.

My head spins around to his direction, “They what?”

Last time I checked, no major organization is talking about this. The fact that Ezri is choosing to target smaller groups tells me that she’s attempting to needle her way into public knowledge without being noticed. She wants to slowly dissolve us from the inside-out, and I have to admit, the plan is annoyingly brilliant.

“So, ‘Your Highness,’ you can leave now, seeing as you can’t ruin our lives for no reason,” she speaks again. I can’t believe I’m being spoken to so rudely by someone who’s wearing socks with sandals.

“Fine then, have it your way. I’ll leave for now, but I’ll be back with word from my father—”

“Attention, everyone. This is an announcement from the IPU.”

A tingling feeling runs down my spine as I suddenly hear Ezri’s voice from the speakers. What could she possible be doing now?

“There seems to be an error in communication,” she says in a concerned manner. Give me a break. “People are receiving letters from both HQ and the residency of President Hartwell. Please ignore any notice from the president’s home and report it to HQ, that is law. This is caused by an unknown glitch in the system we’re currently investigating. Thank you.”

I stand there with my mouth left agape. The lengths this woman is willing to go is unsettling. She knows that Dad can speak out against this, but in order to do that, he’ll have to confess about her. If not, everyone will be left in a state of confusion, and I’m sure Ezri would take advantage of that.

The glass almost shatters after I slam the door shut on my way out, the sneers of the chief editor following me. There’s something strange going on with my body – my hands, they’re shaking. Why are they shaking? A mirror attached to the wall reveals that I’m a disgusting, sweaty mess with a frazzled look on my face. No wonder I wasn’t taken seriously.

I barely even recognize myself anymore. What’s happening?