Seneca Rebel

THE ACOUSTIC CARRIER dropped us off at S.E.R.C. Monday morning. I wanted to dodge Reba so he wouldn’t ask me what I’d decided about Blue Combat Boots. Dominic. I scanned my surroundings as I stepped off the carrier. I was in the clear.

“Campbellllla. Just who I was looking for.”

Well, lots of things were unavoidable around here. “Hey

Reebs.”

“Listen, about our conversation yesterday.”

“What conversation?”

“Exactly. Can we keep it that way? Dominic isn’t a bad guy. I just want the best for you is all.”

“You trust me, I trust you. Sounds like we have a pretty solid friendship.”

Reba smiled. “Be careful. That’s all I ask.”

I nodded. He knew what I was up to. This kid seriously had some incredible intuition going on, and the nose of a bloodhound. There was no pulling something over on him.

“Lunch.” He put his fist up for a bump, and I bumped him back.

With five minutes to kill before first session, I booked it to the hallway where I invariably ran into Dominic. I waited until twenty seconds before my flexer session notification was set to go off, but no sign of him. I was royally bummed. Did Reba know Dominic wouldn’t be around today, and that’s why he was cool with me running off to find him?

I sat through my first few sessions that day completely unimpressed, even though what we were doing in them I normally would have found fascinating. Then, in Seneca Civics and Ethics we had a guest speaker. Seneca citizen, Julian Hollenbeck, was not only the head of America’s top television network, but he also owned news outlets and multi-media distribution networks around the globe. I was more than surprised to see him since, according to reports in the Aboves, he had died of brain cancer a few years back. According to Mr. Hollenbeck, he had been given the opportunity; if he stayed for good in Seneca, to instantaneously eradicate his terminal cancer, and then go on to develop media distribution channels for this new, advanced society. He gave a really inspiring speech about why Seneca is the place where you can carve a promising new future with other likeminded individuals. He reminded us that we were empowered here, unlike anywhere else. Now, more than ever, I wanted to align with the people who could help create a positive change in our world. I had an overwhelming feeling that Dominic would be one of those people.

Rayya Deeb

My last session of the day was quantum computing freestyle. I was exhausted but pepped up when we were given a project. My session mates and I were each assigned a different country and given two hours to bypass international government agency defense systems to extract intelligence on American nationals who resided there. It wasn’t merely for the sake of taking a quiz. This was legit undercover operative stuff, and S.O.I.L. would use our information. There were twenty-two of us in the session. Whoever came up with the correct results first would be awarded an escorted trip to the Aboves with their guest of choice.

In seventeen minutes and six seconds flat I cracked the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, a supposed zero-knowledge proof system. The session leaders reacted as if it was the greatest achievement since the inception of quantum algorithm freestyle. My session mates cheered like I was the quarterback who had just thrown a winning Hail Mary. This whole situation couldn’t have been more different from Mr. Malin’s calculus class back in LA, but the greatest thing of all was that Saturday afternoon I would get to visit Great Falls Park. Somehow, between now and then, I was determined to locate and invite my boy in blue combat boots.