Chapter 14

For several months, Solomon moved in a daze. Thomas and Jennifer had been the only friends from his childhood who had remained close to him. After they died, he had lost contact with Aimee, as he had feared. Other than Sally Ruth, that left Robert as the only person he could confide in and feel close to. Even his father had distanced himself from Solomon after his Selection for Advanced Training, perhaps due to infrequent physical contact with his son while becoming more dependent on the presence of Natasha Zubroski. Robert’s constant sense of humor and camaraderie, his frequent playful diversions, had kept Solomon from becoming a total recluse, excluding all possible emotional entanglements. Solomon didn’t want to keep losing the people who were dear to him.

Now the Zaibatsu, for reasons that were entirely suspect, had taken Robert away from him! Solomon felt totally alone in the world, and angry at this seemingly callous and unjust society the Zaibatsu had created.

In his heart, Solomon admitted that he was most ashamed of himself. He should have shouted out at the injustice of the sentence. He should have screamed to the masses around him that this could happen to them, that they could just as easily be punished by their repressive government! But he knew they would not have listened. They probably would not even have understood what he was talking about. Regardless, he had kept silent. He had let Robert go with a whimper, not a bang.

He just couldn’t get motivated for his project anymore. To her credit, the Director of the Institute was sympathetic to Solomon for having lost, in one blow, his best friend and the only person in the world capable of helping him perfect the TDM. Even in her reports to the Zaibatsu, she failed to criticize Solomon. She noted: “This vital project is of an extremely difficult technical nature, and progress seems to have reached one of those plateaus that often take long periods to overcome.” Even if Solomon had read the reports, he wouldn’t have cared what people thought about him and his project.

Nearly four months after the trial, Solomon sat in his luxurious apartment staring at the walls, which had become his usual occupation. When the door alarm chimed, he looked at the ID plate, but didn’t recognize the man listed. He looked at the view screen and saw a man and a woman in formal business clothing. As all ‘business people’ were by definition a member of a corporation, which meant part of the Zaibatsu, these people must be some sort of government officials. However, Solomon could clearly tell by their dress and their attitudes that they were definitely not Security Force.

“Yes?” Solomon asked through the speaker system.

“Solomon Barnaby Smith, we request an audience with you,” the female said formally. “It concerns a business matter of great import to you.”

Solomon wasn’t impressed. Ordinarily, he would have been surprised there could be such a thing as an unexpected ‘business matter of great import’ to any private citizen. Right now, however, he wasn’t interested in anything, least of all business. Nevertheless, he politely buzzed them through, hoping they would get it over with quickly and leave him to his morose thoughts.

As they entered, Solomon virtually ignored them. They stood silently for over a minute, waiting for him to extend the obligatory courtesies of a host. However, he was in no mood to extend even the basic courtesies of hospitality to anyone connected to the government.

When the silence became uncomfortable the woman said, “My name is Martha Rey Cortez, Level 11 Financial Evaluator, and this is John Raymond Phillips, Level 21 Accountant. May we sit?”

In spite of his mood, Solomon blushed in embarrassment. “Please do. Uh, would you care for any refreshments?”

“No, thank you, Citizen. We’re just fine,” the man answered.

“Then please state the business you have with me.”

“Solomon Barnaby Smith, today is your twenty-fifth birth anniversary.”

Solomon was actually startled. In the first place, it had totally escaped him. Not one of his acquaintances, not even at the Institute, had mentioned it. In the second place, he wondered what the hell that had to do with anything.

When Solomon didn’t respond, the woman continued.

“We’re with the Bureau of Personal Finances. You are familiar with the Bureau?”

“You’re the people who keep track of the electronic records of each person’s earnings and expenditures?” Solomon asked, somewhat doubtfully. “I believe you make sure the records are correct as to the normal financial status of each citizen, and that everyone’s living within their means. Is that correct?”

“Very good,” the woman confirmed. “As a Level 3, I had expected you to have a much firmer grasp of our functions than the average citizen.”

Solomon ignored the compliment.

“What is it about my finances you’ve come to investigate? Have I been overspending my allowances?” he asked ironically, knowing his modest expenditures could not come close to what he was allowed.

“No, Citizen,” the woman said with no recognition of his irony. “You are well within your means.”

“Then?”

She squirmed a bit, evidently uncomfortable with having to explain.

“Are you familiar with the archaic system called banking?”

“Banking? You mean when there were institutions where people actually placed their wealth?”

“Something like that. At any rate, there were many financial transactions conducted by banks. Something similar to how our Central Monitoring System works now, only much more clumsily, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Have you ever heard of lawyers or trust funds?”

“What?”

“Understandably not. Perhaps you know of inheritances?”

“Citizen, I’m sorry, but you are totally confusing me. Could you please come to the point?”

The woman actually sighed. Solomon began to realize this was probably just as difficult a meeting for them as it was for him. Nevertheless, they knew what was going on and he didn’t, so he would just leave the whole burden of explanation in their laps.

“I can understand how strange this all sounds to you. It’s a very unusual situation. May I please offer some explanation before getting to the point?”

Now Solomon was curious, as well as being somewhat sympathetic to the difficult spot these people seemed to be in. He knew what it was like trying to explain what it was he did to people who had no concept of physics.

“Please do.”

“Thank you. You are, of course, aware of what happens to a person’s excess funds when they die?”

“All excess funds are distributed evenly among direct offspring. If there aren’t any, the money reverts back to the Central Fund. Correct?”

“Precisely. In the archaic days of financial chaos, however, there were some people who were allowed to have no reasonable income. Some actually starved or had no shelter. By contrast, there were also a very few people who managed to accumulate wealth far beyond what they could possibly need; certainly what they could possibly have deserved.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that. And these things you mentioned have a relationship with those people dying, I suppose?”

“Yes. The people who died with great excess wealth often set up these ‘trust funds’ that were responsible for distributing the excess wealth to one or more beneficiaries. Quite often, citizens who were Assigned to a function called ‘lawyers’, or sometimes citizens with Assignments similar to ours, were responsible for administering these trust funds. That is, they were charged with making sure those funds kept earning even more money according to the terms of the trust fund, and then they distributed the allowed assets to the beneficiaries. Is this clear?”

“I think so,” Solomon replied doubtfully.

The woman sighed again, although this time with relief that Solomon was intelligent enough to essentially grasp everything the first time. Solomon instinctively realized this process was so rare that she had been forced to quickly learn all of these strange terms and concepts herself very recently.

“Excellent. When the system changed, the Council was very generous. It allowed these existing trust funds and other such personal long-term inheritances – that is, where one person leaves their excess funds to someone else, usually a descendant – to continue to exist until they were all finally exhausted.”

“Truly fascinating. And the relationship of all of this to me?”

“There was a trust fund set up more than one hundred and sixty years ago by one of your ancestors. Even by the standards of that age, he was considered vastly wealthy. Although the earning power of the various corporations ceased to be accrued to individual funds or accounts when the Zaibatsu assumed responsibility for all such financial oversight and disbursement, the principal amount was allowed to remain. Although the lawyers who were responsible for disbursement of the funds of this trust have, of course, been negated by our much more rational system, the Bureau has continued to carry out these responsibilities.”

“Of course!” Solomon exclaimed, a childhood puzzle suddenly falling into place.

“Pardon me?” the woman asked, clearly startled by this reaction.

“My father. That’s how he always had so much extra financial means, certainly beyond what his Level would have normally permitted. So I suppose the same sort of arrangement holds true for me?”

“In some respect, yes.”

“How much was the, uh, ‘inheritance’ my father received?”

“Fifty thousand credits per annum.”

“Fifty thousand credits!” Solomon was amazed. “Per annum?”

“Yes.”

“And I’m going to receive that kind of amount?” Solomon felt absolutely no need for anything more than his Level 3 status already gave him in terms of pay, housing, servants, and so on. Still, was still very curious about this inheritance.

“No, not exactly.”

“Ah, of course not,” he said, actually feeling relieved he wouldn’t have the burden of such ridiculous wealth. What could such excess funds possibly bring a person except trouble? They would probably lose their will to excel in their Assignment, and might be tempted to indulge in extravagances and perhaps even vices that would mean nothing but destruction. In a way, he now admired his father more for not having succumbed to the temptations. He had spent the money lavishly, mostly for the benefit of Natasha Zubroski, but obviously had kept it under control. And he had never neglected his Assignment, in spite of all his wealth.

“Your inheritance is to be delivered in a lump sum.”

“Oh. Fine. And is that still in the thousands of credits?”

“More. Much more,” the woman said, as though the amount was too imposing for her to even say aloud.

“Really? How much more?”

“The total figure is three billion, one hundred thirty million, nineteen thousand and twenty three credits.”

“Great ghosts of Einstein and Planck!”

If the woman had picked up Solomon’s heavy dining table and smashed it over his head, he couldn’t possibly have been more stunned. The entire world seemed to reel. The other two seemed equally overwhelmed by the figure, even though they could only deliver it, not spend it.

“Three...”

The woman managed a nod.

“Three ... billion?”

The man nodded his head.

“Three billion credits? More...?”

This time they nodded in unison.

If he hadn’t known it was virtually impossible for government employees to be lying to a citizen, Solomon would have been certain this was a joke. Virtually all children Selected for government services tested extremely low in sense of humor. Wait a minute...

“You people are from ‘Silly Citizen,’” Solomon accused, thankful he hadn’t made a fool of himself before figuring it out. He had never watched the program, but he knew there was a TV program where the hosts of the show placed unsuspecting people in the most ludicrous of situations, and then recorded their reactions. They had been trying to trick him!

“Solomon Barnaby Smith,” the woman protested sincerely, “I can completely understand your reaction. I assure you we are exactly who we have stated.”

“That’s impossible.”

Neither of them seemed to take offense, although this would normally be a statement worthy of a court appearance for incivility.

“Would you like to see our credentials?”

Simultaneously, the pair reached into their inner pouches as though to show him their official identification.

“No. I’m sorry to have questioned your identities, Citizens,” Solomon said, mortified with himself. “You would have to identify yourselves as such if I questioned you, wouldn’t you?” He vaguely remembered seeing part of the show once, and that had seemed like the difficult part to him. Lying about one’s identity was a major offense, and not even the hosts of the show could do so if they were questioned.

“I believe so,” the man said. “I personally have never seen that ridiculous show.”

“Nor I,” the woman assured him. “However, I can completely understand your reaction, Solomon Barnaby Smith. When we were told of this task, we were also incredulous. However, it’s all true.”

“I see.” Solomon rose shakily from his chair and went to his small wet bar, where he filled a glass with Canadian glacier water. As he took a drink, he saw the two sitting there, just looking at him.

“I’m sorry, once again. Could I get either of you anything to drink?”

The man said, “Uh, well, if you happen to have any –”

The woman glared daggers at him.

“Water,” the man finished weakly. “Do you happen to have any water, Citizen?”

“Of course,” Solomon said, puzzled. He poured another glass of water and handed it to the man. Phillips took a small sip and immediately put the glass down. “Would you also like a glass of water, Martha Rey Cortez?”

“No, thank you. I’m just fine.”

Solomon wandered around the room for a minute before resuming the conversation. “I assume that relatives other than my father must have received annual stipends over the decades, while this sum was left specifically for me?”

The woman’s eyebrows shot up, clearly impressed by his logic. “That is exactly correct, Citizen. And I believe this terminates the trust fund, which is the last existing such inheritance in the world.”

Solomon nodded. “May I ask how some ancestor of mine all that time ago knew I would even exist, let alone how to leave these fund to me?”

“What?” the man asked blankly.

Through the years of doing his research, Solomon had grown used to explaining things to people who seemed slow on the uptake. Consequently, he was very patient with the man.