THE SCRAMBLER - ALANNAH

123-345-567-789-The green beam glides back and forth, inscribing every action of every individual. The city lies enclosed in invisible mesh. The mesh swallows everything and digests it as numbers. Underground, within the Mainbrane, Lowcounts scramble to keep the data fissures free of dust. 1,000m above, a sky shuttle Counter refuses to let Anya on board.

The counts don’t match.

Anya had met Jai again during the flood, a month ago. They were trapped together in an abandoned shute for a day. It had been years since they had spoken. Growing up, she had made sure to accumulate her numbers – getting into a good university, no tax evasion and now a top job. She had made sure she excelled and secured a highcount status for herself. And yet the scanner always seemed to find Jai in a sore spot- bad college records, poor health sheets, involvement in No-Number gangs. She had never understood why he didn’t make the effort. Being Lowcount had no benefits.

763 456345- 4-6-64-3- a flash of green 123 234 455

Anya burst into the ‘Numeral Complaints Office’. Mr. Manjunath sat there ignoring the line of people peering patiently up at his desk. The bunch was mostly a crowd of Lowcounts who were trying to file petitions for a count upgrade. The insipid slug Manjunath gazed at them lazily. With her count not matching the records, Anya was helpless. She couldn’t use any services or make any transactions.
She jabbed the direct line button on Mr. Manjunath’s desk as he glared at her annoyed that she had not bothered asking.
At the other end, Meena answered,
“ Meena, what’s going on? The shuttle denied me..”
“ I know your count didn’t match. We haven’t figured it out yet. Just come down to Mainbrane Encoding Cell as soon as possible. Use your digit card. I’ve put out a forewarning so the systems will grant you access just by the card”
“ But what’s..”, the line had gone dead.
Anya hurried through the chrome doors. She could hear Manjunath yell after her. Stupid Lowcount Bureau-counter she thought to herself. The silver disc at her clavicle glinted as it caught the light.


Anya noticed that Jai became uncomfortable every time she brought up the topic of what he was doing currently. He would quickly come up with some childhood anecdote and then they would laugh about the fun they had had. She finally managed to ask,” Jai, Why do you chose to live as a Lowcount? You could easily do better. You’re intelligent enough.” “Let it go, Anya” he said,” You know I’ve never been a fan of the number game.”
“ It’s not a game” Anya said her voice raised,” It’s a valid system.”
Jai scoffed,“Oh, it’s quite a system! A system that tracks your very move. Have you paid a bill, Did you annoy a Counter, Are your adrenaline levels too high or too low?
Should this glorified calculator be allowed to decide where we’re allowed to go - What we should eat, Who we should fall in love with?”
“ contributed to this system, Jai. Im a junior encoder now.” Anya fought back meekly.
“I know.” Jai said
They fell silent.

144-15662-277-388 back and forth144 1561 99 and back

“Anya! So kind of you to finally show up”, Anil Bahel sneered through his hollow cheeks as she entered The Encoding Cell. He was the Head of the Encoding Department. Anya opened her mouth but put her head down when she saw Meena signal to her to shut up. Meena was also a Junior Encoder.
“ Initially, we thought it was a common anomaly,” Meena said as she walked beside her,” But then a fissure in the lower bulge of the Mainbrane sank and an entire wave ruptured.”
“ You mean the count records of that section are missing! But surely it can be recovered.”
“Whatever it is that is causing these ruptures is scrambling the Count Memory. The scrambling is making recovery impossible.” And as they ran in panic, trying to delay ruptures, more complaints were pouring in. Anomalies and mismatches were being reported from different quarters of the city now.


After many hours had passed, Jai broke the silence and did his famous voice imitation that had always made Anya laugh. As usual it didn’t fail. They had forgotten about their earlier argument.
“You know Jai I’m pretty high up now. Maybe I can help you out, get you a count upgrade. I could..”
He shook his head. “Don’t”
“But there is something I would like you to have. I made it myself” he said. Leaning forward he clasped the silver chain around her neck. The silver engraved disk shone against her skin.

A few weeks ago Anya had decided the verdict on a group of Lowcounts who were completely running out of digits. Jai was on the list. She sentenced the whole group to absolute ‘0’ benefits. She had tried to help Jai. He had refused.


1234 768 234—count after count- 234 567 890

Jai looked down at the screen in his hand. He thought of her sadly. There she was, Anya a little green dot trying frantically to fix a system that was now floundering beyond repair. He pictured her there; the worry in her eyes, her forehead crumpled, tense, the pendant round her neck glistening.

123455 667 878 gliding green 123667 34 55

They had tried various backup techniques. Nothing was working. Just then a Lowcount dust filterer rushed into the cell. “ Sir, Senior Algorithm Digitizer sent me to show you this Sir. The scrambell, the scramble…
“The brane scrambling.. ,” Bahel interjected. Anya couldn’t see the dust filterer as Bahel and a few other Encoders were blocking him out of view.
“Yes sir scrambelling, it was coming from Mr. Alok”
“ You mean senior encoder Sunil Alok”
“Yes Mr. Sunil, Miss Shah, Mr. Ramesh. Sir, it was coming from them. They were all wearing these”
As Anya inched forward to catch a glimpse of what it was that he was holding out for them to see. Mr.Bahel whirled around and lunged at her tearing the shining disc pendant that hung from her neck.

123 345 567 789

(ends)

AVY COMMENTS
I think it’s great the way it ends.
There are some spaces which you can expand upon – which might these be?
Also, take a fresh look at the sequencing of the story.
The shifts from one space to another can be reworked.
Make the plot more racier, more suspense, can you?