by Brian Lewis
“No, we did this Araba.” Natia looks around at the group of scientists. At Alicia, Michael, and Araba, everyone is beaming with reserved joy. “We did it.”
“Has anyone seen Dr. Oba?” Alicia asks.
“Look behind you, Alicia.”
Natia, Araba, Michael, and Alicia turn around and see Khalil, Acacia and Dr. Oba standing by the door. The trio entered in undetected. Khalil’s eyes fix on Natia’s mahogany brown pupils. He’s taken aback by her lack of shock at being caught in the act. He sees her eyes dart back and forth between him and Dr. Oba. Khalil can almost see the gears shifting in her head.
“Now why might you guys be so cheerful right now I wonder?” Khalil’s dark smile hides an even darker mind.
No one speaks, so Natia steps forward, “seems you already know. Hello Dr. Oba, we were wondering where you were… now we know.”
“I told you guys this was a terrible idea.” Dr. Oba says.
“I will have you know that I will use as much of my social capitol as I need to see to it that the Worker’s Council bans you from Endonis Technologies. When this project is complete, find another Enterprise. You’ll be lucky to get a job at the local aquarium testing fish water when Acacia here gets through destroying your reputations.” Khalil speaks as if he is spitting filth out of his mouth.
Shock and disbelief spreads through the group of scientists.
Natia steps to Khalil. “No, no, don’t blame them. Blame me. If you want to ruin any careers, ruin my own. Leave them out of it.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible, you’re too important Natia. But for them, they’re a means to an end.”
“Oh hell no!” Dr. Beverly crosses in front of Natia. “I don’t give a crap what you did in the Second Revolutionary War, I will not be disrespected like that!”
“Don’t forget where you are, Michael. I brought you to this island and I can keep you here.” Khalil’s eyes cut into Michael’s and they turn red with anger.
“What did you say to me? You don’t get to just kick us out of Endonis! This is a collective enterprise, remember? Or are you just another Founder who wants to use your tokens to buy social support!?”
Natia puts her hands on Michael’s shoulders and moves him to the side. “Khalil, tell me what I have to do to keep them in Endonis. Tell me!”
Khalil steps back and looks over at Acacia, who watches them silently.
She nods.
Khalil strokes his beard and motions Natia towards a sliding glass double-door that leads into the hallway. “I have an idea.”
Khalil and Natia exit the room as Acacia watches the group inside.
It’s a sunny afternoon. Khalil and Natia pass the occasional C.O.M.M. sentry tower as they make their way along a winding path lined with palm trees. The path they walk on itself is solar-powered; it redirects its energy to keep the Jena powered.
“Natia I will say this the only way I know how. If you don’t want your friends to lose their place in Endonis Tech, then you must get on board with what I want. Trust me, it’ll happen if I alert the Worker’s Council to your plot.” Khalil and Natia walk side-by-side towards the beach. “Dr. Oba has created for me a series of memories based on my own from the Second Revolutionary War, the Battle of Charlotte to be specific.”
“Let me guess, you want to upload these memories into Subject Alpha’s mind.”
“Precisely. Great minds really do think alike.”
“My mind and your mind are on two separate wavelengths a galaxy apart, Khalil.”
“Maybe, but our cause has always been just. Our goal for an idyllic society…”
Natia cuts him off, “that’s not my goal Khalil and never was!” She stops. “You’re ready to cut off some of the best scientists in New Manden because I hurt your ego! You co-opt Project Maximus and turn it into Project Farima. You bring us to this island. You limit our communication with friends and family. You turn Oba against us. You threaten to extra-judicially imprison Michael! Oh, let’s not forget you showed me the death of my grandparents without telling me. The only reason I’m having this conversation with you is because I value my team and the people of New Manden who need this more than my career. We’re not all willing to destroy lives to elevate ourselves. So I don’t have to listen to any of this.”
“Well, you will because I’m not done talking yet. And as long as I control your team, you will listen to my every word and take heed. I can call the Worker’s Council now if you want.”
Khalil can read the feeling of powerlessness over Natia’s face. Her face contorts in a mixture of anger and sudden grief. “I thought you stood for something. That’s what the Second Revolutionary War was all about right?!”
“I used to stand for a lot. I used to be like you, Natia. Idealistic to a damn fault for thinking I could change minds by using reason and logic. Instead, the world shattered that vision into a thousand pieces. New Manden wasn’t born out of reason, it was born out of warfare! We will maintain it through warfare! We are one of the most powerful nations on this planet in part thanks to me, so I know what it will take to secure us. I know the mind of the enemy. Remember I was there Natia. I was there with your grandfather at the Battle of Charlotte when we stormed the Charlotte internment camp. It was the largest camp in the south-east.”
Charlotte, North Carolina - 2030 - 52 Years Ago
Khalil lowers the KWR flag from the tower of the Charlotte camp. After days of fighting, the terror center is finally liberated. Khalil can see his Turtle Walker with its menacing height outside the camp facility. Thousands of bodies lay sprayed out across the battlefield. More KWR soldiers than Khalil’s men.
He wasn’t born a military man, hadn’t even enlisted. Like everyone he fights with, he was called to serve not his country… but his people. The Freedom Syndicate is a ragtag group of regular Americans who’d rather be building homes or fixing cars. Hell, a few would quietly go back to flipping burgers over fighting the KWR. Khalil had received his doctorate in robotics when the internment camps were exposed, and civil unrest followed.
The unrest that has followed stems from a predictable over-reaction from the State. Its puppet leader fought to stamp out the uprising after days of record protest. It failed, and State repression only made people madder. It wasn’t long before elements within the military, and deep state began taking sides. Leaders rose on both sides like the brother and sister Malina and Akibo Hasalan who would both founded the Freedom Syndicate. A former military General named Cosmo Callistan formed the Knights of the White Rose in response.
Khalil walks around the camp stomping on images of the tyrant Callistan. The atrocities he witnesses will forever stay etched into his memory. The dead bodies of his brethren fill several massive graves. Black, White…the KWR didn’t care. Society collapsed, and every ragtag group with guns thought they’d shoot their way into power.
Many, too many, weren’t prepared. Everything happened so fast.
Khalil stands at the edge of a deep pit, wondering if there’s anyone he knows inside. Anyone he ever ate with, drank with or made love to. Without warning Maurice Greenheart walks up behind him and places his hand on Khalil’s shoulder.
“It’ll get better.” Maurice tries to comfort his ally. “With that T-Walker, I don’t think the KWR will continue to fight. Look around you Khalil, we just laid waste to an entire brigade. There were five hundred of us and four thousand of them, and the early count has our losses at one hundred! I’d say this was a massive blow to Cosmo Callistan.”
“You have a family, Maurice. A loving wife and a smart daughter. They took my family from me. I can’t help but think my wife and children are in a ditch like this somewhere.” Khalil fights the tears back, he can’t be seen as weak in front of his men. “This is evil Maurice, pure evil… and evil must be destroyed. One way or another.”
“Let us first see if they come to the negotiating table… hm.” Maurice, tired of war, wants to go home. Dreams of his bed and his woman keep him going, but
Khalil can see cracks in his resolve forming.
“Even if they surrender, that will not weaken my resolve. I will forever be their mortal enemy.”
Present
“If you could just see it Natia, smell it. The stench from countless corpses of our people. Killed by the KWR because they wanted a better life and dignity. My outlook on the world changed that day. So trust me, you think what I should you the other day was bad. That was nothing.” He turns to face her and looks Natia in the eyes. “Then I found your mother, after Maurice and your grandmother were killed… your mom gave me hope. Your family has always given me hope, Natia. I know I can be difficult to be around.”
Natia puts her head down. He knows exactly what to say, he always knows how to press her buttons and exploit her weaknesses. “I will agree to implant the artificial memories Oba has designed. I demand your word that you will not expose my team to retribution. From you or anyone else.”
“You have my word, Natia, which is stronger than a carbon-carbon bond.” A wide grin stretches across his face. “There’s something else I have to tell you Natia… something I didn’t mention to the entire team when we first got here.”
Natia’s eyes thin and Khalil can only imagine what she must be thinking.
“You know how I was supposed to destroy the two T-Walkers I built during the war after the signing of the treaty?” He waits for Natia to nod. “Well, I didn’t. Both of the original Turtle mechs are thirteen hundred feet beneath us right now in a pressurized oceanic chamber, along with the Farima.”
Natia’s eyes bulge and she throws her hands up in disbelief. “You have illegal weapons hidden here! Oh, Khalil, this is classic. I think you might be a little mad with power. Does Acacia know about this?”
“No she doesn’t, and I want you to make sure it stays that way. Do you think I would destroy the one thing our enemies fear the most? Heck no!” Khalil leans to the side to look past Natia, alerted by what appears to be behind her. In the bushes, he sees an android, skinless, standing with a weapon. He jumps back and screams for a gun. Natia snaps around and sees nothing.
“You don’t see that android standing in behind you with a weapon!?!” Khalil’s eyes bulge and twitch. “You’re not taking me now! Not today!”
Natia runs over to Khalil and slaps him in the face. As she did, three C.O.M.M. soldiers rush over to them with their MX-87 plasma rifles drawn. “Khalil get a hold of yourself! What are you babbling about? There’s nothing in the bushes!”
Khalil turns away from Natia, still stunned she slapped the mess out of him. He looks at the same area where he’d seen an android. Only now nothing was there and the C.O.M.M. soldiers stand there staring at Khalil in confusion.
“Crap! You’re hallucinating now, becoming delusional. Likely because of the overuse of SAR.” Natia waves off the C.O.M.M. soldiers, “nothing to see here guys. Thanks for the quick reaction time though.”
The soldiers turn and leave, looking back several times as they disappear around a corner.
“Get it together, Khalil! Your mind is telling you things are there that aren’t. If you don’t stop using SAR as much as you do, you won’t be able to tell the difference between reality and augmented reality!”
“I’m fine… just… just leave me to myself. I just need a warm shower and some rest.” Khalil takes a step back as his eyes still watch the bushes in paranoia. Turning, he stumbles as he walks away.
Khalil doesn’t want pity, and he doesn’t care whether people agree with his methods. He cares only for the survival of Endonis Technologies and New Manden. He cares to not be a victim at the bottom of a pile of dead bodies in a ditch. The rest of the world be damned.
Chapter 11
Making of a Patsy
Node One—Manay City, 2082—Isle of Khalil—Suspended Augmented Reality
The dark skies of night cover Khalil’s private island.
A hooded woman creeps from shadow to shadow under the cover of the starry sky on the research island. The full moon looms like an ominous warning and casts a soft glow on the tropical expanse.
Underneath her hood, she looks up and can see the semi-transparent shield hundreds of feet in the sky. It encases the island and protects it from attack. It’s also able to shield satellites from prying from space. Since her arrival, she’s hacked into the Jena’s private network. Any unauthorized crossing through the barrier will set off an alarm at once. Doing that will wake everyone on the island. She needs to make sure that doesn’t happen, guests are on the way. The small legion of C.O.M.M. soldiers present on the island need not know their fate so soon.
She looks out into the dark ocean. She knows right outside of the shield’s perimeter; an advance team of deep-cover infiltrator androids await. They wait for her to give them their brief window of opportunity. So she has to be quick, and her job should be easy. Five units patrol during the day, there’s but one at this time of night. Her black one-piece suit clings to her athletic frame and makes her near invisible. Up ahead, however, two unexpected C.O.M.M. soldiers stand in front of the backdoor entrance to the main building.
She has to make her way to the top floor undetected.
There’s nothing I’d enjoy more than killing these two… but no dead bodies… not yet, anyway. The hooded woman in black takes a detour through a group of thick bushes and trees that leads to the brick-walled exterior of the building. She glances to her right and notices the guards speaking to one another. They laugh out loud, unaware of her presence a mere forty feet next to them. Their MX-87 plasma rifles are charged, and one soldier is equipped with a sniper scope. Let me make sure I am nice and quiet. If I fail now, everything I’ve planned, all the time to set this plot into motion will be for naught.
The state of the art smart suit that she wears is designed for infiltration missions and comes equipped with a few ‘tricks.’ She presses a button on the back of her gloved hand and can feel the hot adhesive super glue activate on her palms, knees and in a few seconds her feet. With cat-like finesse and silence, she jumps onto the side of the building and lifts herself higher and higher. Soon her feet also gain traction and she makes her way to an open window on the third floor above. A window she left open on purpose a couple of hours earlier while she walked among the enemy. They are blind to her past and pending treachery.
Stepping through the window, she deactivates the adhesive and her feet touch onto the floor with the grace of a cat. Making her way down the hall, she can hear a patrol coming around the opposite corner. She sprints to find cover and hides behind a wall just outside of the reach of the ‘Shield Room.’ The woman in black peers around the edge of the wall and sees that the two C.O.M.M. Guards have stopped in front of the door. She glances at the timer on her suit that’s attached to her forearm, a smaller version of the Orunmila. Time is running out.
Now is the time to kill.
The hooded woman in black steps around the corner of the adjacent corridor that she hides behind and drops her hood. She walks with an unshaken conviction, knowing what she must do. She steps closer and closer towards the guards blocking her entry into the room. These poor souls will never see their beautiful Jena’s again.
They turn and recognize her. “Ah, Acacia! Surprised to see you out this late.”
Acacia says nothing and does not break her stride. As she raises her laser pistol and pulls the trigger, she imagines their eyes bulging with shock. She is too damn quick. Before they can react, their bodies crash to the floor. She steps over their life-less armored bodies, unfazed by her actions. Giant smoke-filled holes replace the spot where their faces used to be.
The Shield Room is lightly manned. The few workers inside barely notice her entry as she opens fire on everyone. Acacia is cold and doesn’t give them the chance to negotiate their way out of their deaths. She walks up to the main console and begins the deactivation sequence that will allow the DCI androids to disembark from their boats. The plan is for them to blend in with the coming confusion.
&nb
sp; As the deactivation sequence starts, she pulls a cord out from a pouch wrapped around her leg. It snaps into the main console and lights up. Connecting it to her Orunmila, she can access Khalil’s local privacy chain. It controls all facets of the Jena, including communication. She was able to entice Khalil’s secret key-phrase out of him through a joint SAR trip the night they arrived. The details of which the world will never know.
She jams communications on the island, as a start. This way when the sword of retribution comes down on the island, they won’t be able to call for help.
Suddenly, Acacia hears a noise behind her. She whips her body around with her pistol held high and sees Dr. Oba standing just inside the doorway. “Oh, it’s you… how convenient.”
“Acacia… what… what…” Oba is at a loss of words as he tries to make sense of what he is seeing.
“You must mean ‘what am I doing?” A sick smile stretches across her face.
He nods and places his hands on his stomach as he tries to hold down his food.
“I’m putting years of planning into motion. That’s what I’m doing. This is much bigger than you, Oba. Much bigger.”
“But why? Why betray us?”
“That’s above your clearance level I’m afraid and I don’t have time to chat with you. However, you will serve yet another purpose.”
“What purpose is that?”
“You’ll make a great patsy.” Acacia Reed pulls the trigger of her laser pistol and shoots Dr. Oba in the chest. At first, he refuses to go down, so she puts two more charges into him before he crashes to the floor—dead.
Right on time, the island alarm blares so loud, she knows it can be heard everywhere. She checks her Orunmila and sees that the DCI androids sent her a coded message implying that they were on the island. Acacia nods her head with the excitement of dark success. They will soon be in disguise, rushing up to her location with the rest of the real C.O.M.M. soldiers. I will make Taseti proud. I just have to hold it down until he arrives.