The Future

Lai Zhen is an expert in survivalism, specializing in survivalist technology. She is also a top contributor to the survivalist web forum Name the Day. She is shopping at Singapore’s Seasons Time Mall one June day when an active shooter strikes. Before the gunshots ring out, Zhen is thinking about her past, as a survivor of the Fall of Hong Kong, and about her subsequent career as a survivalist. All of her advice seems trite in the face of a real-time event. It seems particularly surreal that such a shocking attack takes place in the ultimate consumer space, the largest mall in the world.

She tries to remember her own advice in her online videos. She runs—not out of the store into the open atrium, but toward the back room where an exit to an internal storage corridor is located. She hides in a box full of Valentine’s Day-themed stuffed animals. She starts to relax just as a gunshot rips through the box. She runs again, realizing that she is the shooter’s target. She also notices that her pursuer is a woman in a floral dress carrying sophisticated weaponry. She dives into a crawl space, terrified.

The novel flashes back to the previous January, when Zhen gives a talk at a conference in London about tech tools for survival. While her talk is popular, it cannot compare to the rooftop party where the richest and most powerful people congregate: Lenk Sketlish is there, as is his assistant, Martha Einkorn; Ellen Bywater and Zimri Nommik are also present. They were all there “to celebrate an environmental collaboration” between their companies (40). A demonstration shows the use of drones to change weather patterns. Ellen explains that this technology could also be utilized for humanitarian causes.

While the CEOs are basking in their collaboration and accomplishment, they are watched by those close to them: Martha, Badger, Selah, and Albert Drabowski, Ellen’s precursor at Medlar. Albert is the first one to express skepticism about the demonstration; he mutters that the technology is for their respective bunkers. Badger suggests that the technology has weapons-grade potential. Martha hushes them. She thinks of her posts, as OneCorn, on the Name The Day forum and wonders how many good people she would save the city for.

In the present timeline, Zhen wonders why someone would be trying to kill her. She thinks that it might be because she knows where one of Zimri Nommik’s secret bunkers is, but then she reconsiders. A group of religious fundamentalists, calling themselves the Enochites, have been angered by some of her posts. The gun-toting woman’s floral dress and long braids mark her as one of them.

The woman starts to pull open the panel behind which Zhen is hiding. Zhen crawls toward the air conditioning array, concealing herself behind the various hoses and fans. She reaches for the knife she always carries when she notices a ping on her thinscreen. It is a message from something or someone called AUGR asking if she needs help.

In the past timeline, Zhen meets Martha during the conference. Zhen is supposed to interview her about Fantail’s potential uses in survival situations. Zhen does not take the interview seriously, noting the absurdly long list of questions she is forbidden to ask and the fact that Fantail is categorically not a survival tool. However, the two are clearly attracted to one another.

In the course of the interview, Martha reveals some personal information about herself that leads Zhen to ask her if she was once a member of the Enochite cult. While Martha is taken aback at first, she answers in the affirmative while trying to clarify (and soften) some of the group’s positions. Her father, Ralph Zimmerman, rechristened himself Enoch, and became the group’s self-proclaimed leader, preaching the notion that modern society, with its technology and cityscapes, keeps people from living a more authentic life, in tune with the rhythms of nature. Zhen’s impertinent follow-up questions about what happened to fracture the group ignite some angry responses from former Enochites once the interview runs online. Still, Martha presses her room key into Zhen’s hand at the end of the interview, inviting her up that evening.

In the present timeline, Zhen acquiesces to AUGR’s offer of help. It provides her with instructions to cut one of the coolant pipes and aim it at the oncoming gunwoman while protecting her own skin. It also tells her to look away as she does this. She covers her mouth with her T-shirt and sprays the snow-like material at her assailant.

In the past timeline, when Zhen arrives at Martha’s room, Selah Nommik is also there. The three drink and discuss survival technology and the possibly impending apocalypse. Zhen begins to wonder if Martha only invited her to pick her brain for information. She excuses herself to the bathroom and texts her friend Marius, asking for information on Martha and Selah. He thinks they are interested in Zhen because they want her to generate some positive publicity about their activities. She does a little searching herself and discovers that the Enochites, though officially defunct, are “still fairly active” online (65), and they are very upset with her.

When she returns to the main room, Selah says goodnight and leaves. Martha asks why Zhen does not have a girlfriend. Zhen mentions an old relationship that lasted a long time; her college girlfriend cheated on her, and she has a hard time trusting people. Martha brushes that aside. They kiss and continue into the bedroom.

They spend the next three days together, enjoying sex and each other’s company. Zhen awakes early on the third day to see Martha hurrying off to the conference. Zhen decides to follow her and witnesses the three CEOs—Lenk, Ellen, and Zimri—standing before an artificial mountain. Selah and Martha are also there. Eventually, they are ushered into the mountain by someone named Si Packship. Zhen waits for a couple of hours, but they do not reemerge.

When she gets back to the hotel room, she finds a note from Martha apologizing for her abrupt departure. Martha also says she has left Zhen a gift, but Zhen finds nothing of note. She pauses to type an apology to the Enochites, then changes some of her passwords, just in case.

In the present timeline, the snowy substance flowing from the coolant tube has frozen Zhen’s assailant. As Zhen extricates herself from her hiding place, she accidentally stubs her toe on the frozen woman. She topples and shatters into thousands of pieces, which start to defrost and bleed immediately. Zhen notes that the woman has the “Mark of Enoch” tattooed on one of her fingers (75). Zhen is horrified and asks AUGR what it is. AUGR replies that it is a gift for her.

In the past timeline, Zhen decides to stay on in London after the conference and Martha’s sudden departure. She visits the Temple of Orpheus, one of the most intact temples outside of Italy. It dates to the time of the Roman withdrawal from Britain. Zhen knows the place well, having written her master’s thesis in archeology on the site.

She is surprised to run into Martha there. Martha explains that her boss’s foundation supports the renovations and upkeep of the site, while Zhen explains her connection to the temple, expounding on its architecture. The two speculate on the provenance of the women depicted in the ceiling mosaics. Zhen says that nobody knows who they are; Orpheus was not said to have children. Martha speculates that perhaps they represent Lot’s daughters, in a synthesis of ancient mythology and biblical scripture. Before they go their separate ways, Martha tells Zhen she might not be able to be in touch for a while but that she likes Zhen. After a few months of no communication, though, Zhen realizes that she has likely been ghosted. Then she is the target of an active shooter.

In the present timeline, AUGR informs Zhen that she is now safe, but Zhen does not fully trust the program. Since her childhood days in the refugee camp after the Fall of Hong Kong, Zhen has experienced anxiety at the unknown. She asks AUGR if Martha is behind this gift, but AUGR suggests it does not know who participates in its program. AUGR tells Zhen to leave the mall and flee Singapore. The mess of the frozen woman will be dealt with in her absence.

In the past timeline, after Martha ghosts her, Zhen receives a surprising overture from Badger Bywater. Badger likes Zhen’s survivalist advice, and the two happen to be in New Zealand at the same time. Before Zhen agrees to meet them, she watches one of Badger’s videos entitled “Enclosures.” Badger compares the tradition of the enclosing of public lands for the use of the English aristocracy in the 17th and 18th centuries to what technology companies are currently doing to public spaces and public information. Companies like Fantail, Anvil, and Medlar monetize personal data and individual creative output while fomenting dissension. These companies do little, if anything, to use their tremendous wealth and influence to change society for the better. Badger makes several suggestions as to how these companies could put their efforts behind real environmental solutions, humanitarian campaigns (like eradicating hunger or investing in education), and shoring up infrastructure. They remind their audience that the people actually own the information these companies use.

Zhen agrees to meet Badger, and they take Zhen to their mother’s bunker in New Zealand. Badger wants to expose the privilege behind these kinds of sanctuaries, but they balk at Zhen’s offer to take pictures: that would reveal that Badger was the one who allowed Zhen access to the place. Zhen speculates that the three CEOs and their acolytes—like Martha—are preparing for an imminent apocalyptic event.

In the present timeline, Zhen leaves the mall, which is still operating despite the presence of a shooter. She packs and takes the first plane out of Singapore, to Manila. She erases as much of her electronic trail as she dares. AUGR goes silent. She contacts Marius on a burner phone, asking for safe haven. He agrees that she is in trouble and tells her to come to him.