The Circle

BOOK III

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T
O HAVE GOTTEN
so close to apocalypse—it rattled her still. Yes, Mae had averted it, she’d
been braver than she thought possible, but her nerves, these many months later, were still
frayed. What if Kalden hadn’t reached out to her when he did? What if he hadn’t trusted
her? What if he’d taken matters into his own hands, or worse, entrusted his secret to
someone else? Someone without her integrity? Without her strength, her resolve, her
loyalty?
In the quiet of the clinic, sitting next to Annie, Mae’s mind wandered. There was
serenity here, with the rhythmic hush of the respirator, the occasional door opening or
closing, the hum of the machines that kept Annie alive. She’d collapsed at her desk, was
found on the oor, catatonic, and was rushed here, where the care surpassed what she
could have received anywhere else. Since then, she’d stabilized, and the prognosis was
strong. The cause of the coma was still a subject of some debate, Dr. Villalobos had said,
but most likely, it was caused by stress, or shock, or simple exhaustion. The Circle
doctors were con dent Annie would emerge from it, as were a thousand doctors
worldwide who had watched her vitals, encouraged by the frequent ittering of her
eyelashes, the occasional twitch of a nger. Next to her EKG, there was a screen with an
ever-lengthening string of good wishes from fellow humans from all over the world, most
or all of whom, Mae thought wistfully, Annie would never know.
Mae looked at her friend, at her unchanging face, her glistening skin, the ribbed tube
emerging from her mouth. She looked wonderfully peaceful, sleeping a restful sleep, and
for a brief moment Mae felt a twinge of envy. She wondered what Annie was thinking.
Doctors had said that she was likely dreaming; they’d been measuring steady brain
activity during the coma, but what precisely was happening in her mind was unknown to
all, and Mae couldn’t help feeling some annoyance about this. There was a monitor visible
from where Mae sat, a real-time picture of Annie’s mind, bursts of color appearing
periodically, implying that extraordinary things were happening in there. But what was
she thinking?
A knock startled her. She looked beyond Annie’s prone form to nd Francis behind the
glass, in the viewing area. He raised a tentative hand, and Mae waved. She would see him
later, at an all-campus event to celebrate the latest Clari cation milestone. Ten million
people were now transparent worldwide, the movement irreversible.
Annie’s role in making it possible could not be overstated, and Mae wished she could
witness it. There was so much Mae wanted to tell Annie. With a duty that felt holy, she’d
told the world about Kalden being Ty, about his bizarre claims and misguided e orts to
derail the completion of the Circle. Remembering it now, it seemed like some kind of
nightmare, being so far under the earth with that madman, disconnected from her
watchers and the rest of the world. But Mae had feigned her cooperation and had

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escaped, and immediately told Bailey and Stenton about it all. With their customary
compassion and vision, they’d allowed Ty to stay on campus, in an advisory role, with a
secluded o ce and no speci c duties. Mae hadn’t seen him since their subterranean
encounter, and did not care to.
Mae had not reached her parents in a few months now, but it would be only a matter of
time. They would nd each other, soon enough, in a world where everyone could know
each other truly and wholly, without secrets, without shame and without the need for
permission to see or to know, without the sel sh hoarding of life—any corner of it, any
moment of it. All of that would be, so soon, replaced by a new and glorious openness, a
world of perpetual light. Completion was imminent, and it would bring peace, and it
would bring unity, and all that messiness of humanity until now, all those uncertainties
that accompanied the world before the Circle, would be only a memory.
Another burst of color appeared on the screen monitoring the workings of Annie’s
mind. Mae reached out to touch her forehead, marveling at the distance this esh put
between them. What was going on in that head of hers? It was exasperating, really, Mae
thought, not knowing. It was an a ront, a deprivation, to herself and to the world. She
would bring this up with Stenton and Bailey, with the Gang of 40, at the earliest
opportunity. They needed to talk about Annie, the thoughts she was thinking. Why
shouldn’t they know them? The world deserved nothing less and would not wait.

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