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developments that we have.” The success of UNICOMA was well protected by
the armor plating of a host of useful technologies.
    “Supremely
important,” Isaac spat out angrily. His hand reached out for a cigarette. “But
I don’t smoke!” In stressful moments, Isaac’s old reflex of fumbling on the
table with his hand for a pack of cigarettes sometimes came back.
    He
tried to pull himself together. “Get on the computer Isaac, they told you
there’s still time. You can earn the money you need to pay for your sister’s
surgery from the V-Rain. Then there’ll be enough for a decent human life too.
Use the chance you’ve got! The doctors still don’t have a full picture! Just
get on with the work like a grown-up while there is still time! And don't
forget: long comas may bring a permanent damage”
    His
rage and the pain inside his head made it hard to focus on his work, nauseated
and choked him, interfered with concentrating on the little device. He recalled
Pierre, the young guy he talked to at COMA. “Shit,” he thought, “I hope he’ll
be all right and won’t try to turn himself into a vegetable again in exchange
for worthless bits of paper. The two of us have been given a second chance.”
    What
the heck was going on here? Isaac slammed his hand down on the mouse in
annoyance. The plastic cracked, but thank God the mouse still worked.
    “One
thing the terrorist was right about is that the people who run COMA and sit on
all these inventions have too much power. It’s naïve to think there’ll
always be a decent man in charge, those who are cunning and unscrupulous fight
their way to the top easier. Someday soon, maybe tomorrow, a potential dictator
will take over; a tyrant, who will consolidate his power and flush all the
opposition down the tubes. They surely must have more serious weapons than the
ones they give their peacekeepers. They’ll hack the internet with their program
filters and tighten their control over the press that they’ve already got on a
leash. Their bank is already the most powerful and there will be a new empire
of Veggies. Well, certainly the more unquestioningly loyal Veggies there are,
the simpler it is to rule.
    “In
all the futuristic films, there always has to be an omnipotent corporation or
empire. Essentially that is the model of the future world. Of course, no one
ever thought the dragon would emerge from the UN. The more Veggies there are,
the more docile the world is. The total elimination of crime has weeded out a
whole mass of freedom-loving individuals who were beyond their control.
Tomorrow they’ll call anyone opposed to UNICOMA a criminal. And then there are
the people who don’t understand a thing, even though they’re not Veggies, take
that Pierre for instance,” – Isaac’s thoughts turned back once again to
yesterday’s miserable youngster.
    Isaac
had no idea that Pierre was on the highest peak of elation because of the
attention lighted on him from the media. Alas that wouldn’t stay with Pierre
for long. Sooner or later the small windfall of fame that came his way thanks
to the real man of the hour, Mr. Elvis, would evaporate.
    Something
else had come Isaac’s way – not fame, but a piece of the board from the central
computer. As he tried to focus his mind on his work, Isaac toyed with it,
intending to throw it out as he had promised himself to do. After his
reflections about UNICOMA, Isaac felt a certain respect for Elvis’s audacity.
He had to conserve his own energy and not waste his breath on idle talk and
promises, especially if it wasn’t all that difficult to make them into reality.
Isaac looked at the piece of board again – it had a couple of microchips and a
mini-memory card on it. A mini-card, but with a big memory, and it wasn’t a
fragment at all, it was complete and undamaged. Happy to do anything but work,
Isaac decided to take a look at what was on it.
    He
plugged it into his own computer and saw a mass of folders with files