Read Savant for Free Online

the chalk mark. When he had finished, it was even less distinct than it had been when he’d knelt in it, but it could still be seen, as if the colour had faded from a tiny patch of the linopro.
    For the next two hours, Tobe stood, bent double at the waist, working out his mathematical problem using chalk on linopro. He worked around his feet, and then moved them carefully to bare patches of floor so that he could continue his calculations.
     
     
    A S M ETOO WALKED along the corridor, towards Tobe’s office, he emerged, closed the door behind him, and turned. She raised her hand in greeting, and they walked towards each other. Then she turned, took his arm, and walked with him back to the flat.
    Her relief was palpable. Metoo rarely went to his office, unless Service needed her to, or Tobe asked for her, but he seemed not to think it strange to see her there. She had not known what she would find, or what to expect. Yesterday had been disturbing in so many ways, and Tobe’s actions this morning, entering the garden-room, had done nothing to alleviate Metoo’s concerns.
    He had been gone since six o’clock this morning, starting work at least a couple of hours before his usual time, so she was relieved to see him leaving his office at his regular lunch hour.

 

    Chapter Seven
     
     
    T HE O PERATOR HAD been out for the rest of the previous day, being de-briefed. He could tell Service nothing that they didn’t already know. He had followed Protocol, and could answer for every decision. In fact, he had not made any decisions; he had simply done what was required of him. There would be no reprimand, or demotion, but neither had he done anything of note; he would not be hailed a hero. He would return to his Workstation at Service as soon as Code Blue was re-established, and maintained for a specified period, which had not yet been decided, but which would, undoubtedly, mirror the length of time that the station was in Code Green. His stand-down could be of any duration, but he did not expect it to be longer than a few days, at most, and he looked forward to the respite. No Operator was ever assigned to an alternate Workstation: one Operator, one screen, one Station.
    Strazinsky, on the other hand, had a very full timetable. As the Named Operator coming into a crisis situation, with a Code change, he was required to see out the change. However long it took, Strazinsky must remain on-Station throughout the crisis, until all settings were restored and verified, or until the situation hit critical mass for a change of Code-status to Yellow. He had expected a long night. What he did not expect was ever to be relieved of his post because of a Code ramp-up.
     
     
    I N THE TWO centuries that Service had been global, two extraordinary events had occurred, including the famous failure of one of the Colleges.
    On that occasion, Code Red had been reached in less than thirty minutes, and had seen four changes of Operator, from Blue to Green and then on, in turn, to Yellow, Orange, and finally Red. The staff change-overs had not happened fast enough, and there had been a massive loss of life at the American College in the Old Mid-West. The College had not survived. More than decimated, it had lost almost three in four of its inhabitants. Death fell democratically across all ages and grades: a thousand Students, Seniors and Assistants died, along with more than a hundred Masters and Companions. Two Actives had also perished.
    The event, known as ‘the Meltdown’ had happened because of a naive and fundamental mistake. The premier Active’s Companion, Abel, had been a charismatic, who had developed a religious cult, and placed his Master at the centre of it. His Master also happened to be, although it was not known within College, Active. Religious tolerance had been a basic tenet of global government since the historic struggles of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and no thought was given to the elevated, God-like persona