A fix of synthetic clack. Outside, byproducts shell against warm buildings, while dayglo-feathered electric eyes predict intentions. When Reese looks out at telepaths soliciting their orgasms and mind control freaks skulking scraping scratching around for a nod, the vidphone rings. Skip this ad. A soft synthetic voice of the pre-connection ad speaks, "'Clear Vision', become enlightened by your own phenomen... You'll be connected after the beep."
Beep.
"Hello, thank you for calling Enomics support. How may I help you?" This I clack. Cover me clack. One. Two. One two three. No one two three survive.
When predictive typing looks up sentences by frequency of use and suggests what he is about to report, it rings. "Have you maintained your quota for the week? Great. I think we need to schedule a meeting- a meeting of the just-the-two-of-us variety- but I'm not open till the end of the week... How's Friday at 3:00? Great." Reese think's he may have lost his job. He works in a call center for Enomics. Enomics is a company not really looking to develop new products, they're looking to sell the same products faster and more cheaply. I'm a victim of vidphone.
Reese says to Bryant, "I'm going to be fired on Friday."
Bryant is Reese's friend at work and only at work. Bryant shares things he finds on the synthetic reality matrix with Reese between calls.
"Doubtfully. You're the only one here who maintains their quotas." The quotas are a weekly ratio of callers complaining of a product being broken compared to number of actual replacement orders.
Bryant points at Reese's monitor and then spins a full circle in his chair back to his desk. Reese sees a video linked to him. He clicks the link. A video of three Hawaiians playing Ukuleles on a beach fills the screen.
A place
where all your dreams come true
A place
where all your dreams come true
A place
where all your dreams come true
When he muses at pixels crawling across LED backed clear plastic outside his worst judgement and of built in monitor cameras purifying his imperfections with normalizing algorithms into the synthetic-reality-matrix sky, ring ring.
He lifts the microphoned headset to his lips, the vidphone at his desk begins purring. Skip this ad. The you're-gonna-have-this-stuck-in-your-head melody for then pre-connection ad. comes across the headset. "Turing quality. A simulated us for an easier tomorrow... You'll be connected after the beep."
"Hello, thank you for calling Enomics. How may I help you?"