The World's Game

by Jacobo Izquierdo

  Crizal soared in the air quickly and got into the building. Several minutes later, he got out of it with a brilliant object attached to his body. As he lacked limbs, he used his mental power to transport it.

  “I found it outside the pyramid when you left.”

  “It’s a jar of life water,” Beiler said unmoved.

  “Take it with you!” The Cyclops ordered throwing to jar to the captain’s hands. “I can’t shelter you on my planet. It’d be against the rules of the treaty. You’ll have to face you r leader.”

  “His mental power is unbeatable,” Palac answered.

  “You’ll have to find the way to corner him and combine your strength to beat him.”

  “The only place where we’ll be able to catch his attention is in Racot.”

  “That would be suicide!” Beiler shouted. “How do you pretend us to fight against him and all his army?”

  “I know my father quite well and I’m sure that when he sees us appearing on one of the monitors of the zac, he’d come as fast as he can without thinking it twice. As soon as he appears in Racot, I’ll paralyze him myself and you’ll disintegrate his head.”

  The captain looked at him skeptical. That plan was too much risky, but the idea of living eternally banished did not appeal to him either.

  “Come on!” The long-lived midarian shouted taking a step forward.

  In Mida, in the control room it was being lived one of the most delicate moments of the history of the planet. For the first time, one of the racots had pushed the established limits of security.

  “Sir,” one of the scientists said. “Piromeiso 76981 has entered the room and is ready to use the transport cabin.”

  “He could come here and attack us!” Another scientist shouted visibly distressed.

  “Shut up, you useless!” Cabolun shouted. “The only way to leaving the zac protection without effect is killing him right there.”

  As his son had foreseen, he left the control room and ran to the cabin. Two million soldiers were surrounding it, patiently waiting for it to turn off. Beating and pushing everyone around, the midarian leader made his way until he reached the entrance. Once there, he got onto the mean of transport to be seen from the top by everyone.

  “Sir,” one of the soldiers said. “Where are you going with that rush?”

  “To Racot,” Cabolun answered.

  “I’ll go with you,” one of the most veteran soldiers. “That planet is very dangerous.”

  “I don’t need anyone to come with me! My armor and my helmet are capable of resisting any weapon from Racot. My mental power is capable of destroying all the beings that inhabit it. So…” —he stared at the veteran soldier— “… there’s no danger at all for me,” he added with a calmer tone.

  “Sir,” the first one said. “I insist. We shout go with you.”

  Cabolun saw through the window how several of his soldiers carried the midarian lifeless body. «This is for them to learn,» he thought with no remorse at all. A strong ray coming from inside him had disintegrated him.

  5333552190RACOT

  Chapter 52

  The room was rectangular and of a sizes similar to a basketball court. The floor, as the walls, was formed only by stone blocks with no detail or ornament on them. They were completely plain and invariable. The ceiling was nine meters above their heads and only the light coming from the cabin illuminated the room in some way. Josef went inside it and remained speechless when he realized it was identical to the one of his dream. A strong noise resounded in the chamber. Josef turned around scared and was astonished to see that now there was a stone wall where seconds ago there was a gate. Staring at the light source on the opposite side, he started walking slowly. Suddenly, something grabbed one of his shoulders and prevented him from keeping walking.

  “Have you seen how we went through?” Margaret exclaimed with an exaggerated smile.

  Josef’s heart almost jumped off his chest through his mouth. He tried to calm himself down, but his lungs kept on demanding more oxygen.

  “I don’t know…if it’s a good… idea for us to be here inside,” he said with the voice shaking due to fatigue and fear.

  “You sound scared.”

  “I’m a bit dizzy. Is there anybody else in the room?” He looked in every direction.

  Margaret nodded. The librarian’s face disfigured even more. He would have liked to get out from there running right then, but we was paralyzed by panic.

  “Who?” He muttered.

  He approached her lips to his ear and covered them with the palm of her hand so that he could hear better what she had to tell him.

  “Keops!” She shouted the secret with a loud laugh. “Who can it be in this place?”

  Josef shrugged. With decisive step, Margaret walked towards the illuminated area. It was a square room of four meters on each side and six meters tall. «A Gessel chamber down here,» Margaret thought remembering the rooms used in the police interrogations. Its walls were made with unilateral vision glasses. This way, from outside it they could see the room interior, but the walls were mirrors inside, or at least that was what they thought. This way, the two of them saw their reflections.

  “A questioning room down here?” Josef asked sitting beside his friend. “However, looking at it carefully, it looks like a lift or...a telephone cabin.”

  “Honestly, I don’t know it,” she answered walking around the room. “Look,” she said pointing to the wall in the north of the pyramid, “there’s something there.”

  Josef approached his face to the glass and tried to identify what was that had called the girl’s attention. «A screen?» Suddenly, a low crack coming from the area in which Margaret was sounded all over the room.

  “What was that?” The librarian asked with all his senses in alert.

  Silence. The surprise could not have been bigger when he had finished looking around the whole room and he realized that the girl had disappeared. He shouted her name several times, but no one answered. «Those strange beings have kidnapped her,» he thought terrified. He walked towards the room entrance to make sure that that was not one of her usual jokes, but nothing. Margaret continued without appearing. Desperate, he looked again at the cabin and a new wave of horror shook his body once more.

  “MARGARET, NO!”

  As fast as his stiff legs allowed him to, he ran towards it and there he started to hit the glass. From inside it, Margaret greeted him as she smiled. Seconds later, he went close one of its walls, he pressed a small button and one of them disappeared to communicate the cabin with the room.

  “Come on, get in!” She ordered.

  “I don’t know if…”

  Margaret grabbed him strongly and their bodies remained stuck inside the cabin. They had never been to close to each other. Josef could smell her vanilla fragrance. She, instead, did not perceive any smell at all in her partner of adventures since he did not use any perfume at all. For some seconds, they stared at each other. Suddenly, the entrance door closed. «I’m sorry,» he said blushed. The wall mirrors traced their silhouettes at the same time that their bodies got free. «I’m disheveled,» she said downplaying the situation.

  “Look at that!” Josef said pointing to the screen.

  It was a panel of eighty inches encrusted on one of the walls. It emitted an attracting light and it showed dozens of Egyptian numbers and hieroglyphics inside it.

  “I think it’s a spacecraft. I guess that the instructions to pilot it are inside it.”

  “I don’t think so,” she added fiddling with her hair. “If it were a spacecraft, those who hid it would know how to pilot it. What would they have left instructions?”

  “Can you translate it?”

  Margaret nodded. Immediately after, she took her notepad and pen out of her bag and started to take notes.

  “I think it’s a kind of planetary GPS,” he finally said.

  Margaret approached her fingers to the screen and the light emitted by it wrapped her hand. L
ittle by little, the glow traced and illuminated every inch of her body.

  “Get out!”

  Josef stepped back, took a gulp of air and gave a strong blow on the girl’s hip with his tennis. She fell onto the floor and the light stopped illuminating her body.

  “What have you done?” She shouted moaning about the strong impact she had suffered.

  “Preventing your from dying electrocuted.”

  “I wasn’t being electrocuted.”

  “I thought that… the light that was wrap…”

  “No!” She shouted again. “Touch the screen!” She ordered.

  The librarian seemed indecisive. He hesitated several times about doing so. Finally, Margaret go up, grabbed his hand and, without thinking it twice, approached it to the screen. The light started to expand along his fingers until it covered his hand. It continued going forward his arm mercilessly and it covered his whole body until he remained completely illuminated. A pleasant tingling invaded each of the areas the luminescence covered. He wasn’t hot anymore nor did any part of his body hurt and his tiredness had disappeared. Josef felt perfectly well. Suddenly, that feeling vanished. The girl took her hand away from the screen and their bodies turned off.

  “How did it feel?” She smiled.

  “It felt incredibly,” he answered excited. “I had never felt so good.”

  “No!” Margaret shouted after checking the time. “It’s quarter past eight. We should’ve been outside twenty minutes ago. We could ge…”

  “I have an idea. Type the numeration in the searching engine to see if there is a coincidence.”

  Margaret started to type the numeric symbols that formed the famous combination on the screen. The combination Mike had pursued a great part of his life. The same one that had led them there. Ten numbers apparently harmless with an unbearable power. Both looked at each other smiling when they saw the search had shown a result. The girl wrote down the translation on the notepad and showed it to him.

  SEARCHING ENGINE: 2958443183 WIROS

  “Wiros,” Margaret murmured. “There’s a destiny called Wiros.”

  “We’ve made it!” He shouted excitedly. “I wish my grandpa could see us.”

  “Wherever he may be, surely he’s very proud of you.”

  “Let’s go!”

  “Are you sure?” He asked with a serious expression. “We don’t know what we’re going to find in…” she looked at her notepad “…Wiros.”

  “I’ve never been so sure,” he answered sharply. “There’s still time for you to get out of here. I can’t guarantee you what it will happen after doing this.”

  “No, I won’t quit now.”

  They hugged each other, put their hands together, breathed deeply and then they touched the screen.

  Chapter 53

  The light went off for a second. Josef looked at his right to see his friend’s face when the cabin lit up again and he saw his image on the mirror. He looked everywhere looking for his adventure partner, but she was not anywhere. He got out of the cabin shouting her name. He went to the other side of the room and he ran into the panel full of hieroglyphics. «I’m trapped. Margaret has left and she hasn’t told me the password,» he thought angry. For some minutes, he wandered around. He walked from one side to the other until something finally caught his attention. On the room floor, there was the notepad the girl had used to translate the information of the screen. «She left so fast that she forgot to take it.» He picked it and started to turn over the pages as if he were possessed until he finally found what he was looking for.

  He ran to the panel again and the pressed the four hieroglyphics. The wall vanished at once. Without stopping at all, he got up the narrow stair that led outside. «She’ll see now. She left me alone.» Josef climbed the last step ignorant of what was about to happen. He raised his eyes and the image his eyes receive was the most beautiful and astonishing he had ever seen. The pyramid was in the peak of a small mountain. From there, the landscape offered a variety of unimaginable colors. A green see served as the mantle of a great variety of trees and plants that depicted the scenery. There was no sun. The turquois sky irradiated its own light and it illuminated every single corner of the place. No element belonging to the landscape had a shadow. The temperature was perfect. The smell was a blend of scents in which jasmine was the one that prevailed. A gentle breeze moved the leaves of the trees producing a pleasant singsong. The feeling of wellbeing was unsurpassable.

  Since he had gone outside the pyramid, he had not stopped smiling. He was happy. His anger with Margaret seemed to have vanished and now he was focused on enjoying the landscape. He went down the mountain and when he was about to reach the mountain lap, he saw an old man sitting on the ground.

  “Hello, sir,” Josef said. “Can you tell me where we are?”

  The man had a moustache and his hair was white. He was wearing a white robe made of a material he could not identify. He was barefoot and he was holding a red rose in his hands.

  “Welcome,” the old man’s voice was soft and quiet. “What’s your name?”

  “Josef. Where are we?” He insisted.

  “That doesn’t matter anymore,” he smiled. “If you’re here it’s because your earthly life has come to an end. Don’t you think the roses are beautiful?”

  “Am I in heaven?”

  “Heaven?” The man asked letting out a low laugh. “Call it as you want. Each person calls it in a different way. I like the word eternal retirement. Here all of us are equal. Neither money nor popularity is necessary. We simply come here to enjoy.”

  “I’m not dead!” Josef reproached angrily. “I’ve come searching for answers.”

  “I see you haven’t assimilated it yet, but take it easy, it happens to a lot of people. At the beginning it’s difficult to accept…”

  “Are you alone?”

  The white-haired man stood up and raised his hand pointing to the landscape. Josef followed the wake his fingers drew and was astonished to see the amount of people that were there. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in small groups got lost in the horizon. «How is it possible that I hadn’t seen them before?» Some of them were talking, others were dancing, while others were strolling as they admire the beauty of the surroundings.

  “Every person that has inhabited the Earth dwells here. Thousands of millions of people living together. Opposite cultures and religions enjoying the pleasure of the dialogue. Everything is different here —the man smelled the rose—, life is wonderful.”

  “Surely my family is here!” He shouted excitedly. “I have to find them.”

  “That’s it,” he answered as he sat on the grass again. “If it’s true that you’re not dead and you come back to the Earth, remember these words. We only live in the world when we love. Only a life lived for the others it’s worth to be lived.”

  Josef did not understand the meaning. There was only one thought on his mind: meeting his family again. We wandered for hundreds of meters.

  He did not know where to start from. He saw a group of people dancing in a circle and he decided to get closer. Like the old man, all of them were barefoot and were wearing identical robes.

  “Excuse me,” he said getting in the middle of the circle. “Do you know where I can find the Roger family?”

  “You look a bit nervous. Is it your first day?” A woman with Asiatic features asked.

  Josef nodded. He looked around and realized he had interrupted the dance. He stepped aside and the group continued dancing.

  “I’m looking for my family. My grandfather is Mike Rogers, the astronaut!”

  “I don’t know him,” the woman said. “Don’t get obsessed about finding them. Enjoy the place. Sooner or later you’ll see them.”

  “I don’t have time. Why are you all dressed identically?”

  “Because here we’re all equal,” she answered smiling. “Fame, power, wellness or beauty are all useless here. In this place you learn values you don’t appreciate when yo
u’re alive. What richness can be greater than words, love, rekindle your dead friends and family? What can be better than meeting your childhood idols or characters from another time again? No one denies you a smile here. Arrogance, envy, lies, sadness or evilness are impossible words.”

  “How am I going to find my family in such a big place?”

  “When you’re alive, you live your life against the clock,” a second dancer with curly hair as black as coal said. “You run from one place to the other without enjoying your beloved ones. How many times have you thought «I wish I had dedicated more time to such person»? The worst of all is that when you realize, it’s already too late. You’ve thought that some time, haven’t you?”

  “Every day,” he answered troubled.

  “Don’t be sad,” the dancer said. “You’ll see how you find them soon.”

  Josef left the group and continued walking as he enjoyed the landscape. Suddenly, a man appeared a two meters in front of him. He was wearing red sweatpants and a pair of tennis. Two seconds later, those clothes turned into a white robe. The man turned around, now he was barefoot.

  “Excuse me, are we in heaven?”

  “The truth is that…”

  «My grandpa!» His legs started moving at top speed. Some tears rolled down his cheeks as he got closer to him. He was with his back to him. He remembered every single detail of his hair. Bushy, brown and with a small swirl on the crown.

  “Grandpa!” He shouted at the top of his lungs.

  The man turned around and Josef’s expression of illusion turned into sadness.

  “Can I help you?”

  He shook his head no.

  “Hello, librarian,” a deep voice at his back said.

  Josef jumped.

  “Mr Henry?” He asked astonished. “What happened to you?”

  “The other day, as soon as you left, I felt a strong pain on my chest and, immediately after that, I appeared here. It was something foreseeable, but what about you? What happened to you?”

  Josef told the old man what had taken him there. The old man could not believe his ears. «That’s physically impossible.» What he had just heard broke all rationality rules. «Inside the Great Pyramid a spacecraft is hidden?»