The Man Who Sold Our World

The Man Who Sold Our World


At first I did not notice it was him. The rain was pouring down and making the street slick. People were scuttling about the city, like wet black beetles, hunched over with their makeshift coats pulled over their heads. Between the downpour and the crowds I was beginning to doubt my client’s intention to meet after all. The water ran red off the canopy of the cafe’s patio. It took me several seconds before I noticed his presence at my table.

“Hell of a day, huh?” he said between lips clenching a cigarette.
“You got that right.” I responded. “It started alright... before the rain.”
“Ironic.” he grunted.
“Excuse me?” I asked as he fumbled to light his cigarette. He used an old Zippo brand lighter with whatever emblem it once had having faded with use and time.
“Ironic. The rain.” he inhaled taking a drag. “The one thing that could save us is the one thing that is killing us.” He exhaled the smoke hastily with a grimace.
“You’re the one to talk about irony!?” I said incredulously with my jaw clenched tight. I had planned on staying calm throughout this interview but he was already getting under my skin within the first 30 seconds.
He stared at me for several moment. I had the feeling he was not just sizing me up but debating internally whether to stay or leave. “I agreed to this interview almost purely so you would leave me alone afterward. I am fully aware of the public’s opinion towards myself and my actions. I do not need you to echo them here. Let us get this over with, please.” He stared unblinking at me with his steel gray eyes.
“You’re right.” I admitted. “I apologize. Shall we begin then?” I pulled out my antiquated recorder, thumbed the power on, and set it down on the table between us.
“I shall.” He said taking another drag. He turned his head and exhaled, letting the smoke play lazily about his head like a halo.

“This is how I sold the world...”


The Earth was dying. She had sustained life as long as she could but her children were slowly draining her life-force dry. Global temperatures fluctuated wildly. Whole fields of crops wilted for no apparent reason. Entire species of plants and animals were becoming extinct at an alarming rate. The theories were endless. They ranged from greenhouse gases to global warming to solar flares but they all came with a single warning. Change. So humanity did what it tries to do best. It changed. However, we did not change ourselves but instead decided to change the world. The world’s scientific community had determined that the weather patterns of the world had to be stabilized before any other projects could commence. We focused our brightest minds on that conundrum and hence the Ventus Project was born. I was placed in charge of the project and it’s direction and that gave me great leeway to steer it where I saw fit.

The first problem was with the way we were to stabilize the weather. Most of the project team wanted to attempt to solve the problem via a space platform or using the space elevator. I knew the best solution required a more active and widespread approach. I decided to start in the American Mid-West region, as that region had been affected drastically by drought. That is where we raised the Zephyros Tower. It was the first of the Ventus Weather Tower Network to go online and the results were immediate and powerful. Rain fell steadily across the region. The climate normalized and crops began the grow. The world rejoiced as Ventus towers began to be built in southern Africa, eastern Asia, and northern Europe. We had done it, do you understand? Science had prevailed! Humanity had conquered! The world had united for a common cause and we reveled in our intelligence and pride.

I suppose that was our downfall as well. As the world’s problems began to be solved we created new ones. Nations fought over the use and control of the Ventus Towers. Countries held each other hostage using drastic weather patterns. The Final War began and again millions of people succumbed to disease and hunger. This is when I first heard of Rust. It was initially underestimated and deemed not as threatening as some of the other diseases effecting people at the time. I first truly understood how deadly it was after the radical NatureNow organization falsely claimed responsibility for creating the virus. Thereafter it was revealed how it traveled through the rain and waterways. As the smaller, more localized, towers began being constructed I was hired as a consultant for several nations to help integrate the newer towers into the existing Ventus network and to help study how the Rust virus was spreading. Once again, I had almost full access to the system.

I had assumed that it was a rogue cell of NatureNow that had approached me. Now I am sure it was not them. I have no idea who it truly was and I will not comment on that further. I do not expect anyone to understand why I did it. I did not know they were going to use Rust, in the beginning. I just assumed they were going to destroy or disable some of the towers. I thought the Ventus technology beyond them. It was not until after they infiltrated a small tower in Australia that I began suspect they were using the virus. The amount of Rust cases was negligible until after the infiltration and when the tower was not destroyed or taken offline I put the pieces together. I met them at the Zephyros Tower a couple of months after that. It seemed fitting to have it end where it all began. I had told myself I was going to stop them yet I had not contacted any authorities. I met them alone at the summit of the tower. I had brought a gun but it was useless. These were not a patchwork team of idealistic radicals. They were militarized and highly organized. I was rendered helpless quickly. They loaded the virus into the tower’s system and left without a word. More money than I had ever agreed upon appeared in secure accounts under my name the next day. I could not tell anyone about what had happened! Who would have believed me? I was the only the only one that had access to everything. There was no trace of the infiltrators and what they had done. I was the scapegoat they had left behind.

At first there was a manhunt but it swiftly died out after the Rust began to take it’s toll. I traveled across the planet never wanting for anything. I had plenty of money to buy everything I needed. As the Towers malfunctioned or were destroyed. I hid away from the world.

He stamped out his cigarette in the ashtray. “There. You have it now. The entire story. Everything.”
I sat stunned in my chair. I had assumed that this was going to be a hoax and I was going to interview someone who perhaps knew him at one time. In flesh and blood the man who sold the world sat before me. I jumped when he began to cough. It was a wet, wracking, cough. He pulled out a handkerchief and coughed into it violently. I saw the red of blood on it as he put it away once he was done.

“This is the true irony.” he grimaced. “You would hope justice would make it Rust. You would think the world would give you that much after all that has happened.”

He smiled weekly and pulled out another cigarette. “No such luck. Cancer. I’ll be dead in weeks.” he said as he stood up gently. He pulled his coat tight around him and with a hollow smile began to walk out into the rain.

I stared into the rain. I watched the people in the crowd come and go.

“Humanity will be dead in weeks.” I said.


© Robert Jones and Robots and Rockets, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Robert Jones and Robots and Rockets with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.