Chapter 41

Witticker sat in a very tight and shady alleyway between two thatch houses in the outer distrip. He and Edward had run from the heart of the market after their most recent encounter, ducking into the empty space to wait until the air cleared from the altercation. Witticker sat watching Edward who had been trying for the past several minutes to catch water dripping from the gutter of the house in his canteen.
“They’ve followed us pretty far,” grunted Witticker. “How did they know we were here?”
Edward continued his precarious attempts at seizing water, shifting his weight from foot to foot just slightly in order to catch each precious drop.
“They don’t operate on chance,” Edward answered dryly, “the same amount of men were in every distrip in a hundred mile radius from here.”
Edward put the canteen down at his feet and held his head towards the ground down, rubbing his temples with his thumbs.
“Dammit! The sun is just high enough in the sky to be right in my eyes. It’s hard as hell to see those drops until it’s almost too late. Better than buying a bottle from those crooks out there, I suppose.”
Edward looked over at Witticker who seemed to be more interested in the dirt at his feet than their diminishing water supply.
“What’s wrong? Is it about what happened back there? You shouldn’t worry about those guys. Really.”
Witticker kicked his feet, sending small motes of dirt floating through the air around them.
“If it’s any consolation, they weren’t here for you.”
Finally catching his attention, Witticker turned his gaze to Edward.
“Alright, explain it to me.”
Edward picked up the canteen and continued his balancing act.
“Well, it’s complicated.”

*~~*

A Brief Lecture on World History
Delivered orally by Edward St. Cavalier
Recorded in 2208
Archive NYPL

“The War of the Golden Sheet began in the year 2200 with an announcement from the Perceptionist group the Golden Acolytes to the remaining inhabitants of North America. Before relating this announcement or its bearing on continental affairs there must be a discussion on the origins of the Golden Acolytes.”

“The Golden Acolytes were founded by a group of mathematicians who based their personal philosophies and daily rituals on the Golden Ratio. This Golden Ratio, or phi, is an arithmetic proportion that can be traced through history as being, in the perspective of several different cultures, a particularly aesthetic measurement.”

“Let us consider three variables. We will call our first variable, the smaller of the three, A. The next variable, slightly larger, B. The final variable, the sum of A and B, C. The golden ratio is found when the division of C/B equals the division of B/A. For example:

A farmer has a herd of thirty-four sheep. When he stands them in a straight line, as farmers are not generally wont to do, but will for the purposes of this experiment, he observes an amazing phenomenon. The farmer, having stamped F’s on the legs of his female sheep, of which there are thirteen, and M’s on his male sheep, of which there are twenty-one, discovers that the sheep are lined up in two distinct groups with respect to their gender. The result is as follows:

FFFFFFFFFFFFFMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

From this distribution of sheep we can infer the following:

FFFFFFFFFFFFFMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM/
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
or…
34/21 = 1.61904…

will equal

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM/
FFFFFFFFFFFFF
or…
21/13 = 1.61538

In short, what the farmer was surprised to see was a stunningly beautiful arrangement of sheep.”

“The equality in the proportion is deemed to be the foundation of the beauty and while it is not always found to be perfect, as in our model of sheep, it is usually pretty darn close. So close, in fact, that it inspired the physical structure of the Parthenon, several paintings by Salvador Dali, and at least one cult.”

“And so, having bridged the historical gap, we return to the announcement made by the Golden Acolytes in 2200. They, not content with imposing the Golden Ratio solely upon the lifestyle of its own members, announced their intent to reduce the number of earth’s inhabitants to an ‘aesthetic’ proportion. They termed their task the ‘Cleansing Subtraction’ and while it is not known what the final count was to be it is well-documented how the members of this cult planned and carried out their ‘Subtraction’ method.”

“In the year 2202 the War of the Golden Sheet, as it had been termed, reached a fever pitch. The Golden Acolytes had amassed a considerable number of followers and were the predominant force in the eastern part of the Americas. The resistance force to the Acolytes had dwindled significantly in the course of the ware and, in a final effort, had resolved to cripple the organization by striking at its core, the leading members of the Golden Acolytes known only as the Perfect Circle. The operation was green-lit by resistance commanders and a small contingent, led by one Cpt. St. Cavalier, was able to break through and speak to the Perfect Circle. It has never been revealed what business was conducted in that time, but after the meeting the armies of the Golden Acolytes were disbanded and the cult quietly retreated out of the public sphere.”

*~~*

“It was just some group of people I pissed off a while back. They have a habit of dressing in black and since those guys were dressed in black it is a fair assumption that it was them. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Witticker slung his head back down, his sight line aimed at the tip of shoes.
“Fine, whatever. What’s our next move?”
“Well,” said Edward, dodging left and right with the canteen, “now that we’ve been spotted again it won’t be long until we’ve got more tag-alongs. There’s no point in avoiding a faster way to travel if we’re hunted either way. We might as well just grab a train and keep a low profile. The only safe place now is where we’re going.”
Witticker stood up as Edward put the cap back on his canteen.
“Just where are we going?”
Edward placed the canteen into his satchel and began walking out of the alleyway.
“New York. Now hurry, we’ve got to catch the next train out of here or we’re going to have more than just four guys to deal with.”
Witticker hurried after Edward into the crowded street of the distrip feeling as if he were jumping into yet another foreign ocean without any semblance of a life preserver.