Amalfi Echo by John Zanetti

all-round having a nice time was either extremely irritating,
or infectiously uplifting, depending on her mood. Right now she let
it roll over her without comment. She too had picked up on Marion’s
increasing tension and focused on that.
    Not wanting to
be left out, Marion created a spoon and also tucked into the
frappe. In between mouthfuls, she used the spoon to jab at the air
as she made her points. “Going directly to the people is full of
risks. If we get them on side, they’ll naturally begin to take on
board the message about the bugs. Even if they don’t believe it
completely, it could cause them to demand that their
governments…‘do something.’ None of the governments of the world
have formulated any clear policy response. The result will probably
be riots. Seriously, they may completely lose control and the
planet slips into chaos and anarchy.”
    “You hadn’t
anticipated this?” Digby said.
    “Early on, that
scenario was only one of the many possible. Even for the learning
programs, there were too many variables. Down the track, we’re
getting a clearer picture of the way events are moving. There are
now an awful lot of people in the world who are primed for a
broadcast from me. Trouble is, every speech I write, the scenarios
end in disaster.” Marion carefully placed her spoon on the table
and sighed heavily. “What I want, may not even be doable and I may
have to face that fact.”
    “You can’t give
up,” Tessa said, matter-of-factly. “The bugs are not going to
conveniently stop and decide to go somewhere else.”
    “Do you think I
don’t know that?” Marion said.
    “Okay, okay,”
Tessa said, rolling her eyes.
    “I’ve run the
scenarios many times. It doesn’t matter which way I run it, all the
scenarios end the same. They do nothing to help themselves and they
all die.”
    “Digby could
have easily made the learning programs give that answer,” Tessa
said, gazing sceptically at Digby.
    “Yeah,” Marion
said, “except that my gut feeling tells me the same. It’s the old
story. The nations of Earth are so bound up in their vested
interests that they won’t even unite to save the planet.” A painful
acceptance settled on her face. “It’s not doable in the time-frame
available to us.”
    “It never was,”
Digby said.
    “Why didn’t you
just tell me that, instead of letting me go through all of
this?”
    “Despite my
God-like attributes, I don’t know everything and nor do the
learning programs. There was always a possibility that you would
come up with a new wrinkle.”
    “Yeah, I’ve got
plenty of those now,” Marion said, “but not much else to show.”
    “Jesus Christ,”
Tessa said, as the awful truth began to dawn. “You’re not giving
up?”
    “I was kidding
myself about what I could achieve. So much for being the great
leader.”
    “Hey, Adult,
you’re setting a bad example,” Tessa said, surrounding the three of
them with inspirational, cheer-up messages.
    “I could do
without this,” Marion said.
    Instantly Tessa
swapped the messages for a priest’s confessional box and sat,
draped in dark robes, in the priest’s chair.
    “Go away,”
Marion said.
    Encouraged,
Tessa tried again, surrounding Marion with drop-dead gorgeous
little puppies with large, soft, love-me eyes. Marion picked one up
and played with it in her lap. Eventually she said, “Fall-back plan
is we do the Ark thing.”
    Tessa created
the Ark, with Digby as Noah and a long column of animals plodding
up the ramp. They all watched the animals for a while until Digby
said, “Not really my style.”
    Which was so
obviously true it didn’t warrant further comment.
    “Earth. What a
shit-hole,” Tessa said, quoting a line from another famous movie.
She tried not to think about her followers dying at the hands of
the bugs.
    “Looks like
we’re going down fighting,” Marion said.
    Digby gave them
an out. “There is nothing further to be gained here,” he said. “I
won’t be