Chapter 141

“Everyone will be tracked, cradle to grave, with no possibility of escape.”
—Dave Eggers, The Circle

WE HAD THREE VEHICLES among us at Donna’s. My truck, Livy’s Wrangler, and Rachel’s Yaris. For the hell of it, we decided to take the Wrangler. It looked like a good day and even if it was too cold in the morning, we had visions of taking the top off on the way home. And so, at way too early o’clock, we walked into the National Services Regional Office.

I don’t know why I felt so nervous. I understood Livy being called in to be tested for her athletic ability as opposed to her athletic aptitude. I couldn’t think of a single reason either Rachel or me should be called in for more testing. Yes, it was optional. But something about the words, ‘We believe this additional testing will be a benefit in placing you when you begin your service,’ just sent chills down my spine. They might as well have said, ‘You’ll regret it if you don’t test.’ I remembered the pressure they put on the school to get me to take calculus when I’d decided my math days were done. What were they about to pressure me for now?

“Hi!” said the bright young thing who greeted us. “I’m so glad you decided to come in for more testing. Olivia Dayton? This is April Levinson. She’ll show you to the locker rooms and tell you what you need. We do the athletic testing over at The Plex, so you’ve got a little walk ahead of you. I assure you that by the time you finish and get back here, your friends will be waiting to go home. Have fun.”

Livy and April left. April had a backpack and Livy had her gym bag. I had a feeling the walk over to The Plex was just a warmup.

“Now,” our greeter said. “I’m Joanna Lark. I’m sure you have a million questions ... but so do we!” she laughed. “Let’s just say that the National Service is growing. Not just in numbers but in opportunities. There’s been a lot of bad press lately regarding corps members being enslaved to do back-breaking manual labor. The Service is not a prison. So, we’ve been on the lookout for people who score high in influencing others. The Service wants to maximize their experience. Certain flags popped up on your profiles that indicate you could be one of those influencers.”

“So, you want us to convince others the Service is a good thing and will help them in ways they can’t imagine?” I asked. I was ready to walk out. Fuck ‘em!

“I don’t know,” Joanna said. “I took the expanded test last fall and when they showed me what I’d be able to do, I signed up for six more years so I could work with gifted and talented individuals and guide them in planning their service. This is my third year and I love it.”

She reminded me vaguely of Adrienne and I thought most of Pod Cheer-up could do her job. Rah rah!

“What are we supposed to do?” Rachel asked.

“It is very similar to the testing you have already taken,” Joanna said. “This battery of tests will explore your identified aptitudes and determine if you also have skills to go with them. It’s very much like your friend Olivia is undergoing. She has a strong athletic aptitude, but we need to assess whether she has the ability and skills to join part of the elite athletes training in the National Service. The tests are once again computerized and you will have a private booth in which to work. Keep in mind that we are looking for both speed and accuracy. Kind of like a typing test,” she tittered. “Do you need a restroom before you begin? Once you hit the start button, you’ll have sixty minutes to answer as many questions as you can. Then you’ll get a fifteen-minute break to answer nature’s call. Following that will be another sixty minutes. Remember, we only have a million questions for you!”

She laughed but based on Ray’s testing, I thought she probably wasn’t far off. If we answered four questions a minute, we’d provide somewhere near 500 answers they could use for or against us. She seated us in our booths with headsets on and reminded us again to work as quickly as possible. Right. And then the test was underway.

“How was it?” Rachel asked when we stepped outside to wait for Livy.

“Tricky,” I said. “I don’t know what your test was like but mine only used my music and language aptitude questions to determine if I was a threat to the system.”

“Likewise. What I don’t understand is why me? Your public profile includes things like the music video, the meme, and your comments about the succession and constitution. None of that kind of thing is part of my public profile.”

“You are identified in the pod and productions, though. You were in the video,” I reminded her.

“Then why not Beca and Desi and Brittany? Oh, my God! Do you think Joan has been called in to test some more? She’ll come out a radical revolutionary!”

“They might be testing her and Em, too. I think they called me because I was public and you and Livy because you are seniors. Beca, Desi, and Brittany have another year to go before the level of their threat can be assessed. Cindy isn’t really on their radar until she takes the NSRE this spring. It’s the same as the invitation I got to audition for the National School of the Arts. It just casually mentioned that I should bring my musical partner.”

“I might be getting paranoid,” Rachel sighed.

“It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.”

“We’re continuing to analyze trends,” Ray said when we called him Saturday afternoon. Everyone at Donna’s was listening in on the call. “We’ve seen people in service being called in for additional testing and being reassigned as a result. Some looked like rewards and some like punishment. This is the first we’ve seen people being called in before they join, except for specific auditions and tryouts like Olivia went through today.”

“Do you think they’ve targeted us because of the video?” I asked.

“Yes. At least in part. But whether for good or bad is the question. There are things going on in the National Service administration that we’re having some difficulty tracking,” he said.

“Like what?” Donna asked. She’d been over twenty-one when the Service began and didn’t have to serve. She was fiercely supportive of those of us who did.

“The new president has been in office just two months. There was such a powerful backlash over the lockdown of the corps and the reassignment of people to agricultural work that National Service became a higher priority even than normalizing relations with Mexico. Her congress immediately passed legislation to redact the national emergency clause used by the former president. But they didn’t replace it. By law, anything not explicitly stated in the law may be governed by the rules and regulations.”

“Great. Another 400 pages of gobbledy-gook,” I said.

“Possibly. But the president wants the entire book of rules, regulations, and procedures reviewed and rewritten without the military overtones. Then she wants the book passed into law so it can’t be changed—like the UCMJ, Uniform Code of Military Justice. That has pluses and minuses. On the positive side, it would make it harder to misuse the book to reward or punish corps members based on political issues. On the other hand, exceptions would be almost non-existent. Equal treatment under the law would mean no exemptions or special circumstances. What we see as likely is that the regulations will be prescribed in the new book, but there will continue to be a secondary book of procedures that is subject to interpretation and change.”

“What does that mean for us?” Livy asked. “That trainer I worked with today did all the testing I’d expect to go through for a University review. Agility, speed, accuracy. But she also kept asking subtle questions about what I believed the role of an athlete representing her country in international competition to be. It was like she was not only testing me, but interviewing me.”

“We found that out in the testing, too,” I said. “There was either a person guiding the questions on that test or it’s the smartest AI I’ve ever heard of. It’s like I was being interviewed by a computer. And unlike the logic diagrams we went over based on multiple choice questions, this one included short essays like we had on the old PSAT. One actually asked me for 250 words defending the 28th amendment or supporting its repeal. There were follow up multiple choice questions I swear were based on my essay.”

“That is indeed a new breed of AI,” Ray said. “My guess is that an individual was guiding the AI but that’s only speculation.” He paused and seemed to be contemplating Livy’s original question. “Joan has been comparatively happy with her service,” he said. “She is getting to do exactly what she hoped to have as a profession. She wasn’t happy about the national emergency fiasco, of course, but she was at work and did a good job. They are recruiting her heavily to remain in service after her two years are up. They’ve even suggested the new work might include her own blog about impressions of the service. Based on what you’ve told me, I’m feeding a new line of questioning into our computer. What would be the characteristics we would want in an ambassador for the National Service? The questions you’ve been asked lead me to believe they are looking for people who would be in public relations.”

“Even after our music and comments?” I asked.

“If we can assume your music and comments became influencers over policy, then swinging you to support the service while maintaining your influence would be a high priority.”

“Wow!”

“I don’t know how I feel about that,” Rachel sighed. “I could probably get behind it if I thought the service was really going to live up to the expectations painted when the amendment passed. The biggest issue I see is the intentional splitting up of established relationships. Sending Emily to California and then the middle of Kansas. Joan to Chicago. Livy and me to God-knows-where. And the four who will enter service next year. If we were treated like families in the military, we’d at least have a major chance of being stationed together.”