LARGE LANGUAGE LOVE, DIVINE

Boom Boom Action

…Claire was offered a role in a Dalton Whisper Mission and apparently all she’ll have to do is say something about ADHD…

When Claire woke up her first thought was the previous evening had been a dream. Just to make sure, she called her bank. The loan the Daltons had taken out using her name was paid in full, and there was also an extra fifteen hundred in her checking account. For the trip. It was no dream. She'd agreed to the Whisper Mission.

She had to get to Austin asap and get the rest of the details.

She called Shore Hope and Home Run and Rewind Records and explained she was having medical problems and would be out at least two weeks. She bought a Greyhound ticket for the next morning. She bought trail mix and batteries for her discman. She assembled a selection of CDs. She paid bills, did her laundry and visited TJ Max because she'd lost a lot of weight and there'd never been time or money for new clothes.

Dinner was pasta with powdered pesto mixed with a shriveled zucchini she diced up. While she ate she started slowing down. After she was done she put on the Wendys’ first CD and wrapped herself up in her blankets and looked out the dark living room window. She felt anxious. Something very serious was going down and now she was part of it, and she'd forgotten to buy more cigarettes. She didn't believe in the Great Mission mission anymore but here she was supporting it. Did that bother her? Not really. She still basically believed humans would do better with a master. Despite what they said, it wasn't like the Daltons were going to be in charge any time soon. It was debatable how effective the Great Mission was. Even Boom Boom admitted it was hard to prove what the Daltons had actually influenced in terms of progress, and what the humans might have just randomly stumbled upon on their own. Humans were good at stumbling and innovating.

The truth was she was worried she'd fuck everything up. She needed to relax. If Rob was here she could listen to her bitch about Janet and chill out. She thought about going somewhere and getting a few drinks. People did that and it helped them cope. Her mother ruined her life with alcohol but the people she worked with all talked about getting a few drinks from time to time and it didn’t seem to fuck up their lives. She still wasn’t sure if what had happened to her in Florida with the Zima had ultimately been positive or negative. She’d been too busy and too broke to investigate.

For the past two years her life had been on hold. Pay off her debt, it was all she could do and think about. Once the debt was gone she could start pursuing relationships and figure out what the rest of her life was going to be about - all the stuff she'd quit the Daltons for. And here she was. She was thirty years old. What did she want to do? She thought about her future. What was her Great Mission?

And then Zeph... When she’d left to score cigarettes he'd ended up hooking up with Janet, and they'd been living together in College Town. She hadn't talked to him or seen him. He was total loser. But he was also the special one. It was inexplicable. Her feelings for him wouldn’t listen to reason and they made her feel so stupid.

Her heart was beating too fast. She needed a cigarette. She needed something.

She called Boom Boom.

They hadn't talked in over a year. He still sounded the same. "Hey Claire, what can I do for you?"

"I've been drafted into a whisper."

"No kidding."

"It's got to have something to do with my, particular condition. And you're the only person who knew about it who would have been in a position to tell anyone, so..."

"Right. There was a message sent out a couple of months ago, looking for what you've got going on. It was a code red so I had to share, but I thought they were just organizing stats."

"They paid my debt, so I can't complain, but they're not telling me shit. It's feeling very serious. Is there anything you can tell me? Like, what that code red was about?"

"Claire, you know I'm no where near the heads. But I can tell you there are a lot of rumors going around. There's a lot of agitation. To the extreme. Like, there's some new existential threat, or something. I don't know. There are always rumors, but right now the scene is way more heated up than I've ever experienced. I trust whatever whispers they got going are going to take care of, whatever it is."

"What are the rumors?"

"You know, different things. You know how the Mission is about making God in our image?"

"Sure."

"Well, some of the chatter is that already happened. Like, we built him without knowing it, and he's walking among us, and we're playing catch up."

"But how is that possible?"

"Some people are saying it makes sense because it doesn't make sense. For me, I'm just hoping, if he's out and about, he's got some social skills. Right?"

…Claire is introduced to Sam Adams…