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"What'll that be, an ear tag?" Valentine asked.
The woman at the desk unlocked a big paybox, but the man glared at Valentine. "State of birth, United States designation?"
"I'm Canadian", Valentine said, wondering if he should try to imitate the accents he'd heard on the White Banner Fleet in the Great Lakes.
This made the official even madder. He pushed a yellow card at Valentine and passed over the stub of a dull pencil. "We'll be checking that".
Valentine filled out the yellow card, no easy task with a pencil under an inch long. He gave his correct date of birth and listed his birthplace as "Fat Log, Saskatchewan".
"Two days' visitor rations, six hundred seventy-one dollars", the woman said.
"You must run a hell of a cafeteria", Valentine said. The woman tapped a laminated statement on the desk that showed the daily prices along with various taxes, duties, fees, and environmental-impact charges. He reached for his coin belt.
"Keep it. Guest of Senator Bey", Sagamoto said.
"We'll have to clear it with his office", the GAR man said, reaching for a phone.
"An aide is on his way up", Sagamoto said. "I'll sign and put my sosh". Sagamoto didn't wait for approval; he scrawled a signature on Valentine's yellow card.
"I should tear that up in front of you", the GAR man said.
"Want your bulletproof vest back? You do and I'll have the GAO
and the AG on you tonight. You'll be out riding a motorcycle in the boonies, collecting Patriotic War Duties".
"Table it, Barry", the woman said, tearing off a preperforated card from the yellow sheet and handing it to Valentine. "Sag here is engaged to a guy on the AG's staff". She stamped it and handed it to Valentine.
The last checkpoint was a velvet-rope serpentine. Sagamoto lifted a latch and they cut through the empty switchback alleys, and came to a pert, attractive woman in a thick blue blazer with a red, white, and blue scarf. Her smile was almost as bright as the sodium floodlights at the top of the tunnel. She checked Valentine's ID.
"Welcome to Mount Omega", she said, handing him a small, dog-eared book held together with a rubber band. "If you have any questions, this guidebook may assist you. Issuing the guidebook is not an implied contract to provide services. Acceptance of the guidebook places you under all the provisions of the Visitor Security Act".
"Take it. Don't worry", Sagamoto said.
Valentine accepted it and the woman recorded his ID number on a clipboard. Her smile brightened by another couple of watts. "Thank you. There is a FAQ and a list of security restrictions in the guidebook. Failure to comply with speech codes on page three will result in loss of Inside privileges. Mount Omega is a discrimination-free zone. Mount Omega is smoke-free since 2024. Mount Omega is proud to be Working for Victory under VO-2011 protocols under the Just Human Rights and the Resistance Acts. For more information on any of these initiatives, consult your selected representative".
Valentine felt air moving, like a fresh breeze outside. The strong air currents indoors weren't exactly disturbing, but they lent an unreality to the cavernous underground.
"We call this level Grand Central", Sagamoto said, pulling Valentine out of the way of a platoon of soldiers with Marine Corps insignia walking toward the entrance, two navy officers in timber stripes trailing behind, one carrying a camera with a long telephoto lens. "Sometimes people come up here just for the chance of seeing a fresh face. Above this level is the atrium, and there are greenhouses that are
the next best thing to going outside on your vacation. Getting to be Outside again is a big recruiting incentive for the military, but people generally find out it's not all it's cracked up to be".
"That why you signed up?"
"Wanted to go out and change the world. Felt like it for a while... I was helping refugees relocate".
"Same here", Valentine said.
Sagamoto pulled the string on his paperlike pants and he opened his waistband, as though they were two little boys comparing genitals. Valentine saw a wide plastic tube emerging from a fleshy hole just above his line of pubic hair. "My first battle didn't quite work out the way I thought. Have to stick close to medical care now".
They stepped under a big electronic board, above a guarded alcove with four banks of elevators, where LED lights spelled out activity on different levels. Congress was in session, and various cases were being heard in courts, including the Supreme Court.
"You heard of that butterfly's wings stuff?" Valentine said.
"When there's no lower intestine left to stitch..."
"No, it's this theory... a butterfly flaps its wings in China and you get snow in Virginia. Little, imperceptible events have big repercussions later. Maybe you caused two people to meet out there, and their kid grows up to be the next George Washington".
"I heard that kind of thing from the rehab team. They don't have to wash out colostomy bags... look, Valentine, I'm not challenging. You were trying to be nice". He took a deep breath. "Sure. You never know. At least I tried. I'm still trying, just in a different way. Looks like you've had a near retirement or two yourself".
