Masters of the Sex Gates

It was a small mob, just a few dozen young people with a smattering of other ages. Most of the young ones had that almost unbearably healthy look that told me they had recently gone through a sex gate. Leaning forward on the lounger in our media room, I watched as the events outside unfolded on the screen. Beside me, Rita reached for my hand.

"Why is this happening, Lee " she asked. Her voice was level, but the guarded look in her eyes said she knew something was wrong, and it encompassed more than the mob gathering in front of our gate.

I shrugged, and tried to sound bored. "It seems that the news that we're Seconders has gotten out. We'll have to stay tight in here and ride out this demonstration."

She cast a stricken look at the wall screen where people shook raised fists at our entrance gate. "Why do they hate us "

Hate wasn't something Rita understood despite her years of studying psychology. There was too much love in her heart. She couldn't grasp the anger and jealousy that surged through the excited mob. I tried to maintain a calm exterior, although I was plenty worried.

"It's a small demonstration -- probably bored Fourth Worlders with nothing to do, incited by the Church of the Gates' propaganda against Seconders. It'll turn out to be nothing."

Rita faced me with a frown. "You don't really believe that."

I rubbed my throbbing temples. "I get a sense that the pattern surrounding the sex gates is shifting, that's all."

For once, I hoped my gift of sensing patterns in unfolding events was wrong. The sex gates and the events triggered by their appearance had dominated our lives from the moment one materialized in front of us years ago. We were inexorably linked to their fate.

Rita's hand gripped mine, and I knew she felt the same way.

This day had started like any other. The first sign that it would mark a turning point came around noon. As a compulsive news junkie I always have the wall screen tuned to at least one all-news station, and the computer is programmed to scan for items of interest. So it wasn't surprising when the program was interrupted.

A voice proclaimed, "We will take you live to breaking news in Ruston, Texas."