Free The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn Page A

we can avoid a lot of problems later.
     
    “That’s vague,” Zekeal mumbled. Mfumbe typed.
     
    MT: If the bar code becomes required, would you advocate civil resistance to it?
    DY: That’s why we’re working so hard now — so it doesn’t come to that.
    MT: But if it did happen, would you suggest that all people resist and not get coded, on the grounds that it is an unconstitutional law?
    DY: Can’t say right now.
     
    Zekeal clicked them out of the chat room. “What did you do that for?” Mfumbe protested.
    “He’s avoiding the issue,” Zekeal said, standing. “Dave Young’s a great guy, but that avoidance thing crashes me.”
    August clicked them into a website in San Francisco. The anti-code group on that site was claiming that the bar code linked you to the devil. She remembered Nedra’s article with the quote from the Bible.
    August clicked out of that site. “That group thinks drinking milk links you to the devil.”
    “Don’t laugh,” Nedra snapped. “Maybe it does. AgroGlobal owns every dairy farm on earth and all their cows are transgenic, which means they’vebeen altered to produce more milk. As far as I’m concerned, Global-1 is the devil.”
    “Who’s ready for this?” Allyson asked, tapping the case she held.
    “I am,” Nedra said quickly.
    Allyson opened the case and slid out a small metal piece that looked like a computer mouse with a monitor in it. She held it up to her eye and clicked a button.
    “What is that?” Kayla whispered to Zekeal.
    “A virtual reality headset,” he told her. “Allyson’s father has no idea she takes it out. She had to sneak to load her eye scan into the lock just so we could unlock the case. She’s such a genius, she was able to do it.”
    “What do you use it for?” Kayla asked.
    “You’ll see,” Zekeal said.

August lifted the virtual reality helmet off his head. “Your turn,” he said, handing it to Kayla.
    “All right,” she agreed. “What’s going to happen when I turn it on?”
    He turned a dial. “I set it to take you to the next resistance frequency we can pick up. They change depending on who’s sending. But basically you should have the sensation that you’re inside a resistance website.”
    “Where did you just go?” Zekeal asked August.
    “I was attending a meeting of resisters in Canada. They were all talking French. I had no idea what they were saying.” He laughed. “It was kind of final level, anyway. They were all so excited.”
    Kayla glanced at Mfumbe for reassurance. Her eyes asked him if she should try it, and he nodded. She placed the helmet on her head.
    August told her what buttons to press and soon the helmet was humming on her head. The vibration ran down along behind her ears and traveled through her jaw. She shut her eyes as the sensation continued down the back of her neck.
    Lights filled the blackness behind her eyes andformed blobs that crossed and blended into new colors. Sometimes they separated, reminding her of the films she’d seen in science depicting cell division.
    She began trembling as the vibration from the helmet overtook her whole body.
    Then, somehow, she was on a rock outcropping on a mountain. Below stretched a mountain range so vast and far-reaching that it seemed to go on forever, until it faded into ethereal blue. Somehow she’d lost the helmet.
    To her right, a woman with long black hair sat beside a small fire. She wore a cowboy hat that boasted a wide band of gorgeous feathers, as well as jeans and a heavy woolen poncho. She held a bundle of grasses and herbs that she waved over the fire, sending out plumes of white smoke and a pleasing herbal smell. With eyes tightly shut, she chanted a wild, poignant call that seemed to emanate from the center of her being.
    Kayla stepped closer. The sound of her footfall on the gravel-strewn rock caused the woman to slowly open her eyes. She fixed on Kayla but betrayed no emotion.
    Kayla felt awkward under the scrutiny of such an unwavering