C.A. Gray: I’ll bet it’s strange for you to be on the other side of an interview, since between the two of us, you’re the famous reporter.
Kate Brandeis: Not really, Q&A is kind of the same, no matter which side of the table you’re on.
CAG: So I understand you’ve been through a few nasty shocks lately.
KB: (Pause.) That’s… a huge understatement.
CAG: I thought I’d let you fill in the blanks.
KB: I’m really not even sure where to start.
CAG: Tell me about the Republic. What did you used to think of it, and how has that changed recently?
KB: Well… when I was a kid, apparently I was a rebel. But I just now remembered that. For all of my adult life up until now, I thought… I thought I lived in Paradise, honestly. Everyone was happy, all our needs were met, we had the best imaginable government and Potentate…
CAG: What changed?
KB: I woke up, I guess. I don’t know how else to describe it. It felt like waking up from a dream. And also kind of like remembering a nightmare.
CAG: What is your understanding now of why you were confused for so long?
KB: The refugees in the caves I’m in now told me the Potentate controlled our brainwaves with subliminal messaging. I don’t really understand the technology of it all, but it involved a high power radio frequency and all the control centers throughout the Republic. I never knew why those were there before. I should have wondered, I guess, but I just never questioned it.
CAG: Is that typical for those inside the Republic? Not questioning things?
KB: Definitely. (Makes a face.) Alec, another refugee in the caves here that I knew when I was little, calls the people who are still in the Republic ‘sheep.’ He says they’re dumb and easily controlled.
CAG: So were you a sheep?
KB: (Hesitates.) I guess so.
CAG: And now?
KB: Now… I’m trying to understand my world. Imagine waking up one day and finding out that all your memories are actually false, everything you took for granted as true was a lie. Or if not everything, most things. What could you trust? Who could you trust?
CAG: Is there anyone you trust now, in the caves?
KB: (Nods.) I trust Molly and Nick. I trust Jackson.
CAG: Why? You’ve only just met them, haven’t you?
KB: Intuition, I guess. I have to have something to cling to, or I’ll go crazy. I picked them.
CAG: Thanks, Kate. Good luck making sense of it all.
