Valedictions

The doctor was very concerned my implants weren't working properly and took extensive notes. He didn't seem to think it a matter of concern that I had a map of the city in my head; more my questioning of it. We've all prayed for augmented intelligence, he mumbled, not looking at me. I was rescheduled for another hospital visit. That was 18 months ago. The implants are failing again.

He looked at the torrent of praise for Austin and shook his head. It jelled with nothing that he knew, nothing at all.

And then the nightmare began again; as it always did. She still wasn't in; although it was after eight am. But her number lit up his phone and then she was barking in his ear; already frothing at the mouth. "Follow up" he heard several times; then: "You knew these people; find out everything you can," she said.
"No one I know could pull off a thing like this."
"Perhaps, but ask them anyway."

Austin and "deep well of pain" were the only fragments he could remember. But he knew, too, the received world had gone astray. The television screens, even some of the computer terminals, carried Austin's picture and scene's from yesterday's incident. Not a single person stood up and said: "That's not right, that's not the way it was."

THE BIGGER STORY:

Voice of America:

Australians have suffered a dramatic loss of confidence in the ability of the United States to manage international affairs. The first survey of attitudes by a center set up by the Howard government to improve relations, finds a significant deterioration in the way Australians feel towards the U.S. due largely to the Iraq War.