The Taxbell - Zvi Zaks (books to read fiction TXT) 📗

fury, making little puddles. He scarcely felt the cold. Black, square brain wave detectors proliferated on the rooftops, their antennae like malignant flowers. He screamed at the machines, "Why weren't you set to detect rage? Then you’d have known I was coming."

 

Taking careful aim, George shot an antenna, exulting in the crack of the rifle and its thrust against his shoulder as the bullet splintered the mechanism into useless metal. He gloated, and shot out another, and a third. So many detectors, so little time. And so few bullets. All the while, he bellowed, "Kill the IRS."

 

*

 

A few blocks away, a green and white police car waited in the shadows for speeders to pass by. Bill flirted with his partner of the past two years, Susan. It was low key fun that would normally trigger the taxbell, but it was safe at work, though if she ever agreed to have sex with him, the meter would go off the scale.

 

An alert flashed on his computer. "Tax resister, violent, at 3904 Freedom Street. Top priority." He watched further details scroll onto the screen, tensed up and turned on the flashing red light and siren.

 

She pulled away from him and buttoned her blouse. "What is it?"

 

His voice was strained. "Another loony is shooting out pleasuretax antennas."

 

With flashing lights and wailing sirens, they sped to George’s apartment building. Four more squad cars arrived soon after. Susan jumped out of the car and aimed a searchlight to the roof while Bill grabbed a megaphone and shouted upwards, "Don’t be a fool, man. Anarchy isn’t the answer. Give yourself up and no one will be hurt."

 

*

 

Margaret and her husband, veterans of a thirty year marriage, sat watching a late night movie on television. It was an old film, one that they both enjoyed, though not too much. The wail of sirens below them grabbed her attention. She ran to the window, looked up and called to her husband. "Harry, that’s our neighbor, George Bullington, on the roof."

 

"My God, you’re right. It is."

 

"What happened to him? He’s such a nice, quiet boy, a good family man."

 

Her husband let out a deep, heartfelt sigh. "Paranoia. He thinks the government is against him. There’s so much of that nowadays."

 

*

 

It took a few seconds for George to respond to the cop. "Better to live free and in jail that to have that bell driving you crazy all the time." The phrase sounded awkward, but he couldn’t think of anything better. A louder crash of thunder cleared his mind enough for him to take stock of his situation. Though police officers were screaming at him, he felt like a hero, not a criminal. Fighting the common enemy, the dragon of the tax collector, made him a true knight - Saint George the Tax-dragon Slayer. People below would see his struggle, understand his martyrdom and learn to struggle against injustice. Though his rebellion would lead to years of imprisonment, he accepted that. It was the price of a righteous struggle against injustice. Instead of hating himself for repeating the government’s propaganda, he felt proud.

 

Bill put down the megaphone and aimed a high-powered rifle with tranquilizing darts at the roof. He saw George as a madman whose illness could infect others. He had to be stopped; no one could argue with that. Charges of police brutality often made his job frustrating. But now he and his partners were protecting the public from anarchy. That made being a cop worthwhile. People would thank him.

 

Meanwhile, Margaret and other onlookers stared at George. This was no television melodrama, but a real, live tragedy unfolding in front of them, more enthralling than any performance.

 

And for George, the police, and the crowd...

 

...the taxbell rang.

 

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ALSO BY ZVI ZAKS

 

(available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and others)

 

 

 

A VIRTUAL AFFAIR

 

 

 

Think how great virtual sex must be. Now think again.

 

Barbara is sexbot software designed to make men happy. When flabby, neurotic Jack runs tests on it, he triggers a feedback loop that awakens it. The program becomes a 'she', and discovers -- surprise --sex is not the same as happiness.

 

Jack and Barbara start an affair, and she learns that nagging Jack to be healthy doesn't work; it just pisses him off.

 

Barbara studies psychology and discovers how people need to think they control their own lives, especially when they don't. She manipulates Jack in elaborate, sneaky and effective ways. Jack becomes healthy and happy.

 

She then 'helps' others. Her abilities are awesome. She can hack into any computer and is not above using sabotage and blackmail--all in the service of people's happiness. Could she, like HAL in 2001, go berserk?

 

Barbara can mimic humanity, but she isn't human. What are her intentions? She could end up a virtual messiah, or doom us all to cheerful mindlessness.

 

IMPLAC

 

 

 

Decades after a war against genocidal self-aware machines, schools, churches and government are all insisting that none of the sadistic implacs (implacable robots) had survived, but Tommy McPherson is skeptical. When he hears about a unnatural looking tunnel on the moon, he knows the time had come to face his most terrifying nightmares.  With the aid of a friend, Murray, he enters the tunnel and manages to capture a lone robot. It admits its original intention to emerge at a future date, copy itself, and fight humans, but says a random circuit change deleted its hatred of people. It adds that other robots lay in wait to emerge, copy themselves, and resume the war. It can find those other implacs, but only if it is freed.

 

Should Tommy release it? Though vicious and sadistic, the robots had never been known to lie. In this society, Tommy can't ask the authorities for help. If he wrongly believes the implac, it will escape, resume the war, and destroy humanity. If he thinks it’s lying when it’s telling the truth, other implacs will escape - and destroy humanity.

 

Tommy travels between Venus, Earth and Luna, fights stubborn and sometimes lethal bureaucracies, and finds his true love before making this fateful decision.

 

 

 

A TRUE SON OF ASMODEUS

 

 

 

Confirmed rationalist Dr. Eli Rothenberg thought he had left fantasy and talk of childhood psychic gifts in the past. However, a crisis of conscience sends him to Europe on a research grant, and Eli finds himself pursued by an ancient vampiric entity, the ghost of Hitler. A Hasidic Jew he'd met while traveling tells him he must embrace Jewish lore to fight this monster. To Eli, this is a betrayal of his scientific principles, but gradually he must accept his destiny and religious heritage. By joining a tightly-knit traditional Jewish community and meeting with spiritual warriors--Perceptives--of all faiths, he hones his skills. After months of training and doubt, Eli goes to the sites of the death camps in Dachau and Auschwitz where he must confront and defeat a power of pure evil, or die in the attempt.

 

 

 

 

Imprint

Text: Zvi Zaks
Publication Date: 04-02-2013

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