Mattie 3.0, the defictionalized character of my own creation that had been brought to life in 2084 shortly before I myself had been brought to that year via the time travel portal in my cellphone, had told me to sit on his plain gray couch in his apartment in Old Orleans and to wait while he got "Brother Bain" up and running so that he could report in to the Intransigents about the surprise invite I had gotten to the mysterious original New Orleans, now at the bottom of the Bay of Mississippi, and so that's exactly what I did.
(By the way -- if you are confused by any of those words in that ridiculously long run-on sentence, then you should probably read some [or all] of the prior 36 missives.)
But I stayed seated for only just a quick minute -- because I jumped to my feet in surprise when Mattie 3.0 slid the refrigerator out of its nook in the kitchen, and spun it around to reveal a secret compartment in the back. It became clear that that was where "Brother Bain" was housed.
"A fax machine?!", I said aloud, half questioning and half naming what I was seeing as if I was a naturalist in the wild who had come across an animal for the first time that everyone had thought was long extinct.
Mattie 3.0 smirked.
"Indeed -- a fax machine. We found that the easiest way to communicate in secret code is to resurrect an ancient technology. We can still plug into the Vitalnet, but the transmission is so lowkey, it's virtually undetectable. It registers as little more than noise."
As he explained, he was quickly filling a blank piece of paper with rows and rows of images. When he saw me looking intently at what he had created, he provided an explanation for that as well.
"But just in case -- we conscripted the best of the old glyph type languages for our cause."
He paused and stared right at me, lowering his voice to almost a whisper.
"You can never be too careful."
Once again, I felt awkwardly like the student had become the teacher.
"Never!", he added, one more time for emphasis.
And with the loophole closing that I use at the end of each month when the aforementioned Vitalnet is updating to send a message back to you in your time, I'll leave you with that same thought, as I know now that the First of the Four Uprisings is nigh. YOU can also NEVER be too careful. Until the last day of the month next when I use Troy-in-2019's social media to continue telling this tale, please, I implore you ... BE CAREFUL!
