Margaret Medici
Eugene’s brow furrowed. ‘You mean you could choose who died?’ ‘Oh yes.’ Hahn’s tone was matter of fact. ‘But now I venture onto the territory of state secrets! Not only were we implanted with health chips, those of us who thought we were important were implanted with tags that identified our status. This was updated in real time. So if my car was in an accident with another, and there was a possibility that one car would be so badly damaged its passengers would die, one of the decisions taken by the cars’ on-board computers would be which passenger was higher status and should have the higher chance of survival.’ Eugene looked astonished, ‘But how could that happen?’ ‘You have to remember that our computers worked at a phenomenal speed and there was plenty of time for them to check which car carried the higher status individual and redirect that car to minimize impact on them. That might involve a far worse collision for the other car and its passengers.’ Eugene shook his head. ‘Weren’t people outraged at this?’ ‘That’s where the state secret came in. No one knew this happened, apart from the agency that monitored status, and those of us important enough to be tagged. Everyone else believed the feedback systems loaded in cars were there to monitor the car’s mechanical state, position, etcetera; few knew they engaged in passenger identification. If my car hit the President’s, my car would be the one selected for destruction, if that would save the President. I have to say that there were few cars that would have survived a crash with my car; the Lincoln Pentagon was bullet proof and built like a tank; it was the limousine of choice for all senior aides! ‘I had a robot driver, that is, a human looking dummy sat in the driver’s seat; there was a reason for this, as it looked as if I had a bodyguard with me. The car was actually guided by a set of sensors built around it. In an emergency, the doors locked, grills covered the windows, and metal plate shields were raised
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