“Who are those people?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but this doesn’t look good.” Marion replied.
“The fat guy, that’s Thomas, he works for the government,” Ursula said. “He’s their liaison and lives here.”
“He’s a bloody creep,” Marion chimed in. “And if he’s greeting them then I can only guess that they’re his bosses.”
“Lives here?” Catlin asked.
“He’s a government liaison, they insisted on stationing someone here at the installation to keep an eye on things.”
“I thought the government didn’t know about Destiny?”
“They only know about the upstairs one love, not the real one downstairs.”
“Oh.”
“But trust me, they have their suspicions and I’m sure it has something to do with him. We’ve had to change his thread on occasion to protect this place, but maybe something slipped through.”
“You can just do that, change his thread?”
“Yes. Sounds easy, but fate is something of a bitch it would seem.” Marion mused aloud.
“How so?”
“The philosophical conversation can come at another time Catlin.”
“Ok.” She turned her attention back to the group.
Clearly these people knew something, they’d arrived within about fifteen to twenty minutes after the incident had occurred downstairs. Come to think of it … Catlin still didn’t know what happened, after Ursula had left to get coffee she only took a moment to realise she had an opportunity alone. She wanted to find Peter and consequently looked up his thread.
Oh geez, I hope I didn’t stuff something up! Please don’t tell me I’m responsible for this mess.
“Do you know what happened?” Catlin asked Marion.
“I was locked up love, don’t look at me.”
“Huh? What? Locked up?”
“Hmmm, well I was anyway, up until that alarm went off and someone came to get me out.”
“So, you’re the lead for Eight?”
“No. My name is Marion dear.”
“Oh, sorry, Marion.”
She looked up to the demountable buildings and saw two armed men exit through the door and move deliberately in the direction of the group of evacuated personnel.
“Ms Conley?” One of the soldiers called out. “We’re looking for a Ms Conley.”
She hung her head, turned away and pretended they didn’t just call her name. Marion and Ursula seemed to sense her fear and grouped around her in a protective manner, equally as unsure why they were looking for Catlin. Instinctively they tried to shield her from the soldiers.
The soldiers persisted and moved through the throng of people until they were within about ten feet, at which point Catlin decided it was pointless trying to hide. She guiltily stuck her right hand in the air, as if she’d been called out in the school classroom.
The soldiers made no comments, they both came over and beckoned her to follow them, back in the direction they came from.
Oh, bugger it ... I’m screwed …
- -
Apartment 28a
“Suni … A.B calling. Suni, can you hear me?” The scratchy voice of Alison Benchley sounded via the speakers of a computer in the apartment.
Suni stood behind the chair of Doc, who was operating the computer, she asked him, “is it a safe line Doc? Can we answer it?”
“I don’t know,” his voice sounds unsure. “I’m not a computer genius.”
“Well it’s not my strength either,” she replied. “But if she’s calling then it has to be something important, so we need to speak to her.”
“Well like I said, I’m no computer whizz.”
Suni stands there silent a moment contemplating her situation, she hasn’t spoken to Alison in quite some time or received any updates from her. Considering their current predicament, she thinks the need to communicate with her is risky but worthwhile.
The two women had met over thirty years ago, but it wasn’t until recently they’d reconnected, Harrison being the person who tracked Alison down utilizing Destiny’s digital software.
Alison reluctantly agreed to a meeting and even when she did the meeting did not last long. At the time Suni couldn’t fathom a reason for it, she was grateful Alison had agreed but disappointed when she didn’t achieve anything as a result. The meeting was pointless. Alison was polite, made some enquires after Suni, but soon left.
She had no interest in working together.
Thereafter, Suni attempted several times to contact Alison again but was unsuccessful. Alison was unresponsive to her pleas for help in setting up a new thread and Suni didn’t hear back from her. She did wonder why, as they’d known each other for so long. Why would she meet with her the one time and then ignore her? Why wouldn’t she want to unearth another thread just like at Destiny?
But one day, only a month ago, Alison had resurfaced and contacted Suni again. Suni eagerly accepted the offer to connect, which they did so via the internet. Alison had come bearing news and information, she wanted Suni’s help. Suni was elated but wasn’t sure how to be of use to Alison, but Alison had set her the task of finding the device.
Alison was going in search of a new thread, she needed Suni to find the device.
Again, the speakers sounded with Alison’s voice, seeking a reply, “Guys? Are you there?”
“Doc?” Suni asks again for his advice.
He holds his arms up, “I don’t know, Harrison always told me to make sure of a couple of things when going online, I’ve checked those things and they seem ok, but …”
“Ahh, she only calls when she has news, which means I really should answer it.”
“The setup hasn’t changed since the boys left, so I guess it should all still work. But I might suggest that if you’re going to reply, you do so quickly so nobody can trace the call.”
Suni hesitated only a moment longer before grabbing the microphone and giving Doc a nod, “... go ahead AB.”
“Suni, AB, I’ll make this quick ...” there’s a short break in the movement of the soundwaves on the computer screen in front of Suni.
“... Suni, pergamites found, burn marks discovered, residue confirms match. Excavating now to confirm visually but we have preliminary evidence indicating a large impact on the Earth.”
Suni’s eyes instantly flash wide, she lunged forward, grabbing the screen. “Repeat that!”
The screen’s still a moment and Suni repeats her command only louder, when no response came she called again, more frantic this time. “Repeat, say again AB, repeat!”
“Suni … confirming preliminary contact ... Contact confirmed, I think we found it!” A laugh can be heard trailing off at the end of the transmission.
Oh thank god! Suni says to herself. “Great job AB, great job … now hang tight, situation extremely critical here. No device and the Smith has returned. I will re-establish contact within twenty-four hours ... out!”
“What?” came the shocked response, “Smith? He’s back?”
But Doc disconnected the call abruptly, cutting Alison off. The computer screen flicked off and he spun around on his chair
“Geez Doc!”
“Sorry, we can’t risk discovery. We got the information she wanted to tell us, so no need to waffle on.”
“True.” Suni agreed. “But I probably should have told her about Smith.”
“Why, he’s disappeared anyway?”
“True.”
“And pray do tell, what was she on about anyway?”
“Yeah, what was that all about?” The voice of Harrison sounds out in the background, giving the other two a fright.
The two turn round quickly and cry out in alarm, they’ve already confined him to his bed but it seems he doesn’t intend on following thei
r orders. Harrison’s proving to be like a mischievous child, not wanting to obey anything he’s told.
“I’m fine, I’m telling you, I don’t need to be in bed!” He smiles, rubbing the back of his head. “Head tingles a bit though, and not the outside ... the inside feels weird.”
The two look him over and consider him, Doc still staring in amazement. Only two days prior he had been unconscious, suffering from gunshot wounds. Which he’d then died of, as confirmed by Doc.
Miraculously, four hours ago, he recovered from those wounds and now appeared in perfect health. Three gunshot wounds, sprained wrist, damaged ribs, cuts and abrasions, all of them … gone.
Not a single mark on him.
Suni seemed less surprised, not because she didn’t care but because she’d seen such a thing occur before. The only thing that worried her was who had made it happen, for surely Destiny wouldn’t have had anything to do with it.
Meaning someone else had control of a thread and had used it to revive Harrison, what other explanation was there for it. Doc checked him over the minute he rose from the bed and found nothing out of the ordinary, save for the lack of injuries.
A complete recovery, with no explanation. When asked how he felt, Harrison could only point to his mental state, claiming he felt strange indeed. But lacking for an appropriate description of it, Doc had put it down to the revival episode, assuming it was what was making his head feel fuzzy.
“So …” Harrison smiles, “are you going to tell me how she is? What she’s up to?”
“Who?”
“Alison of course.”
“Harrison, you really should be resting.” Doc scorns, getting up and coming over to check Harrison’s head.
“Said I’m fine,” he responds. “Save for my brain.”
Doc does a quick inspection of his face, checking the eyes and ears and Harrison’s sense of awareness. “I think we really need to get a scan for that head of yours. What kind of sensation is it that you’re getting?”
“It’s not pain,” he replies. “But more of a mental pain, as if my heads full of too much garbage and I can’t stop it. There are noises … and strange images.”
“Well I for one think, once it’s possible, we get you checked out properly.”
“He’s fine.” Suni waves her hand about her.
“I don’t even see how that’s possible.” Doc muses, rubbing his chin, “I mean, I pronounced him dead?”
“Suni?” Harrison looks at her questioningly, “Do you know what happened to me?”
Suni pauses to consider herself, sighs and then begins telling the story of her days as part of Destiny many years ago. She’s never really elaborated on much of anything in her past to her team, such is the strength of their trust in her.
She recruited Truck and Pigeon after their duties in Afghanistan, and Harrison soon thereafter. The team joining her a Doc, being assembled with the goal of unravelling the truth. For each member of the team it meant something different. For Harrison, it was finding Destiny. For Truck and Pigeon, in exchange for their services Suni was to help them find the one called the Viper.
The team knew much less about her real intentions though. They knew she was working towards taking the system down, both Destiny and government, the finer details had just been left out.
“You’re not here by chance Harrison, or by the grace of some god.” She says sternly, “You are here because someone saved you, someone revived your life.”
“What do you mean saved?”
She grabs his hand in hers softly. “You passed away ... I saw it and so did Doc. You were shot, several times and you died as a result.”
Doc nods in agreement. “You died Harrison, there can be no mistaking it. Now you’ve had a complete recovery, not even a scar to show for it.”
“So why am I here then man, is this some sort a dream?” he asks, rubbing the spot where the bullet had penetrated his skull.
“You’re here because someone revived you, and not like you think. To understand how it happened I must tell you a story.”
Suni told them a story then, about how many years ago when she was at Destiny she was ordered to take a life. The system at Destiny allowed them to locate a person’s thread and literally drain the energy, their life force from them, thus killing them. That taken energy could then be used to replenish someone else who had lost theirs.
One day whilst Suni was operating a station at the Destiny facility an incident had occurred with one of their field teams. They’d suffered an attack and a person she knew only as Okko had suffered a gunshot wound and was dying. She knew little of him, only that he was a field agent for Destiny and he was dying from his wounds.
At the time, Suni was operating the thread line station at Destiny and observed as Okko’s signature code was fading on a screen in front of her, but they’d never tried to do anything about situations like this before. They made alterations to people’s lives, changing many things, but never life and death alterations.
Her superior, Ma’am, had ordered her to complete a task she never supposed possible, she was ordered to take the energy from one life form and transport it to another.
Her instruction was to locate any civilian thread, take its energy and transport it into the fading thread of Okko’s. At first she was confused, amazed that such a thing could even be conceived of. She hadn’t been working long on the thread station at Destiny, but she’d been around for long enough to know that such a thing had never been done before at the installation.
Even though she had no idea how to manipulate the thread to make it happen, she also felt it morally wrong to carry out the order. Using the technology to play god was not to her liking, so she refused the order, refused Ma’am.
Ma’am responded more firmly with her command to carry out the order but when she realised that Suni wasn’t going to budge, she backhanded her across the face and had her removed from the console.
With her out of the way, Ma’am took control of the console and very swiftly completed a few set of commands, quickly enough that it looked like she’d done it before. To her surprise, on the screen, one signature rejuvenated and the other trailed off, almost as simply as taking fuel from one car and transporting it to the other.
Ma’am had successfully revived Okko, at the cost of a stranger.
She had played god.
Suni didn’t know who the unlucky victim was, but she resolved at that moment to not be a part of Destiny any longer. She loved what she’d achieved and learned at Destiny and had been the lead in several discoveries they’d unravelled. Exploring the new technology was a wonder and a privilege, but abusing the power was not in her nature, she wanted to learn the thread not play god with it.
She stayed quiet after the incident, biding her time at Destiny and until an opportunity presented itself where she could flee the installation. Now for the past eight years she’d been looking for the technology that Destiny had, so she could finally get back to researching the thread. But she also had a major gripe against Destiny and wanted to see the installation closed.
“It takes two things ...” Suni flashes two fingers up. “You need to find a signature point, almost like a metaphorical wire in the earth. And second, you need a device that’s able to connect to, read and translate the signature point into a computer.”
“That’s what we were after when you sent us out on that mission, the device?” Harrison asks.
Suni nods and lowers her head before saying, “it was a risk I had to take sending you out there, the device isn’t something you can make yourself. I do not believe it to be a creation of man, yet somehow it’s technology is adaptable to work with a computer?” She shrugs her shoulders.
“Computers didn’t come from here.” Harrison comments randomly, with a strange look on his face.
“Yes, I’m not sure computers were invented
here either.”
“So how much do you really know about this Suni?” Doc asks. “Because it seems even you are unaware of the true nature of this, thread.”
She pauses to consider the question, her team have never really asked her about the past and truth be told, she liked it that way. But ironically, when she did recruit them, she chose them for their ability to question things.
“I only know a little …”
“Suni!” Harrison exclaims aloud.
“He’s right, it’s about time you told us the real story.” Doc crosses his arms, pressing her for answers.
“Ok” she exhales deeply. “I only know of the original people, the original group that were part of the discovery some thirty years ago. Samuel, Marion and Lucinda.”
“Only four people?” Doc asks.
Suni hesitates for a moment. “There was another group that joined us soon after. Alison and a team of excavators.”
Harrison smiles when she mentions Alison, he likes her, even though they’ve only spoken online.
“And these people ... you say they were the ones that discovered it?”
“Yes.”
“What, they just dug a hole and shazaaam!”
“No ... We did find the site but the digging, well they had a little help, or more likely they were helping him.”
“Who?”
“The foreman, he came with Alison to do the dig. I didn’t really pay much attention to him at the time, just assumed he was another worker. Until the night he disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“I don’t even know how to answer that, he just wasn’t there.”
“What was name?” Harrison asks, intrigued.
Suni hung her head.
“What was his name?”
She looks back up at them both, her eyes shifting awkwardly, “You’ve already met him.”
“What?”
“The foreman of the dig, his name was Smith.” Suni replies, exhaling deeply, almost as if a great weight has just been lifted off her chest. Both men look at her inquisitively.
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