by Toker, Dor
Sato worked by himself and loved it. He did not feel any need for teamwork. The rest of the soldiers in his unit were also very comfortable with him working by himself. His expertise and secrecy did not go unnoticed in the eyes of his commanders, and they entrusted him with sensitive missions that demanded the use of extraordinary means, and abilities he alone possessed. At the end of the process of his military advancement, he was taken under the wing of Admiral Yamamoto, the commander of the great Eastern superpower’s Special Forces guard and became his man for special missions.
Sato became the Admiral’s main executioner in and out of the borders of the Chinese-Japanese superpower. The annihilation tasks he was given were always performed with pinprick precision. He never hurt anyone who was not supposed to be hurt, and no one has ever managed to locate him or the place from which the annihilation instruction had come from. The admiral trusted him with everything while the admiral’s subordinates grew more and more intimidated by him. He did not talk much; his gaze was always serious and tranquil. He aroused a feeling of discomfort in many people and they tended to avoid him, which suited him just fine. Sato preferred to be secluded, to perform his job efficiently and then return to his secrecy, as if he was a sand crab hiding in a hole he had dug for himself, then lunging at an innocent prey that happened to pass by, grabbing it to the darkness of its lair.
No one knew that Sato had a purpose in life. While his mother had accepted the death of her husband with the same restraint, which typifies the culture and tradition she was born and raised in, Sato was unwilling to come to terms with the truth about his father’s unnecessary death. The day his mother told him how his father had found his death, Sato took an oath to avenge the killers. He was thirteen then, too young to vent his rage on those responsible for his father’s death, but old enough to commit and mark the targets for his vengeance.
At the age of thirty-seven, when he had already served as the most senior super power agent under the command of Admiral Yamamoto, Sato felt that he was ready to execute his revenge. He targeted five men who were, according to his meticulous investigation, responsible for his father’s death. Four of them were members of the terrorist organization that had conducted the bombing in the nuclear reactor in which his father had been employed; the fifth was their commander. When Sato executed his revenge, the five were soldiers in the China-Japan army. The political changes in the area had led to the merger of the Chinese, Korean and Japanese armed forces, which became one vast army spread across about a fifth of the Earth’s surface, on both land and sea. The five former terrorists had become, following the union decision, regular soldiers in the superpower’s army and Sato easily located them one after the other. He annihilated them with the patience of a hunter. For seven years, he had assassinated the common soldiers, one after the other, covering his tracks. Their commander, he left for last. The man, Zhi Sou was his name, had risen up the ranks in the meantime, playing the political game inside the ranks of the army and using every possible opening to improve his position in the hierarchy. He’d already reached the rank of Vice Admiral when Sato had assassinated him. Sato did not manage to hide this murder from Admiral Yamamoto, who was personally acquainted with Zhi Sou, and was forced to escape from the army and from the wrath of General Yamamoto. He did not change his profession, but from that day became an independent assassin for hire. He was expensive but distinguished himself as the best the profession had to offer. People from all over the world hired his services. He worked alone, no one has ever seen him, and supposedly, no one even knew of his existence. He received his work orders directly through the web into the private interface in his body. The rumor of the ‘Hachiman’, as he was called in the web journals, passed by word of mouth so there wasn’t any danger of him being located. He had paid large amounts of money to maintain this situation. He had no enemies because he could not be held accountable for the sudden death of the people he was hired to kill, apart from Admiral Yamamoto, who had sworn to kill him when he’d found out about the death of Zhi Sou. The circle was partially closed when the admiral, in his new role as the security deputy director-general of the Yavnsen Corporation, had ordered an assassination from him. But the former admiral himself wasn’t aware that the assassination he had ordered would be performed by Sato. He’d merely made contact with ‘Hachiman’, the ghost warrior. The press attributed at least a hundred and thirty-seven assassinations to the ‘ghost’ over a period of three years. Sato was the only one who knew the real number was much higher.
‘Hachiman’ quickly folded the laser gun he had been using just a few seconds ago. The target, the wife of a man who had cheated and was cheated herself, was lying on the edge of the swimming pool in her own house. The money had already been deposited in his web account, camouflaged by dozens of fake names and identity numbers. He tapped his middle finger and authorized the money transfer, official Mendelssohnian dollars. When a miniature bulb blinked on the retina screen in his eye (Eye Improve ©), he was hoping it was a new work order. He blinked and enlarged the screen. The message included only the name of the target, how much the ordering party was willing to pay for it and an asterisk, pointing out the fact that the target should preferably be captured alive. The name meant nothing to the ‘Hachiman’, but this was not unusual. He’ll track him down. The amount was much higher than his usual fee, which was significantly higher than that of any other assassin as it was. He was surprised by the asterisk. He was almost never asked to bring in the target alive. This meant the assignment would be more difficult, hence the higher amount that was offered.
He never asked what it was all about or why? It was none of his business. He tapped his middle finger to indicate a positive answer, placed the folded gun in his bag and retreated in a low crawl.
Once more, he succeeded in avoiding spending time without a contract.
Chapter 8
Once Joseph found out that Adam had managed to evade his pursuers and was headed to Amsterdam, he alerted whoever he needed to alert of Adam’s imminent arrival. From now on, someone else will need to assist the boy. He had done all he could, now he would need to concentrate on misleading his enemies, Adam’s pursuers. He landed his hovercraft in the Amsterdam harbor, some distance from where the commotion the charge of corporation agents had created just a few moments ago. From a safe distance, he followed the failed attack attempt and the agents’ continued searching for the escaping boy. He was highly impressed by Adam’s ability to evade his pursuers time and again and was very pleased with the fact that once more, they had been unable to capture the boy.
Professor Joseph Stein was the scientist who had managed to calculate ‘Earths expiry time’ (EET), as he’d called the collapse of the planet into itself, following the eruption of the viscid Asthenosphere layer, combined with the magma of the planet’s core, above the Lithosphere. Of course, in the beginning he had encountered disbelief and scorn from his colleagues in the scientific community. Various counter arguments and proof were raised to refute Professor Stein’s analysis, but when a year after the publication of his findings, a series of eruptions across the mid-Atlantic ridge had raised the surface of the ocean by over six feet, more and more voices were heard in support of Doctor Stein’s hypothesis. Following the series of physical changes, large parts of the African and South American continents were flooded, as well as the lower areas of Europe and the Low Countries. The Mediterranean had nearly doubled its surface. Hundreds of thousands of people and animals had been killed and millions had lost their homes. It was a reminder of the temporary nature of life on Earth, and human colonization efforts outside the home planet intensified. Volunteer colonies on Jupiter’s moon Europa served as a type of experimental balloon in anticipation of further attempts to transfer human beings in vast space shuttles beyond the solar system. But Joseph believed the solution did not lie with the establishment of one negligible colony or another. The answer lay with Adam. The destiny of the entire human race lay in the hands of a boy. The spread
ing of the tectonic plates was too orderly, accurate and measurable, it had to be planned and timed.
Joseph interfaced with the hovercraft’s computer and reexamined the condition of the tectonic plates. Even though he had checked the movement graph less than six months ago and knew exactly what the change values would indicate, he could not help himself from checking once more. According to the matrix he’d created, the Earth had approximately five hundred years of existence remaining, unless unexpected changes take place, such as an unmapped object, changing its course and hitting the Earth from space, or nuclear activity on the surface of the planet or its vicinity.
Even though there was little time remaining, Joseph realized that the boy was still incapable of handling the assignment he was destined to perform. Adam was not yet ready, and his biomechanical stopwatch had not yet fully developed. Joseph also didn’t know how the hell one could cope with the vast challenge of saving humanity?
While Stein was sunk in thought, the attacking forces had dispersed and disappeared in the watercraft and aircraft they had arrived with a few minutes before. The people who had gathered, at a safe distance so they could watch the events out of harm’s way, also returned to their own affairs. For the time being, Joseph decided to sever all contact. He knew that Adam was now in good hands, the best he could wish for.
Chapter 9
The cabin’s door was swallowed into the adjacent wall with the silent sound typifying enclosed and air conditioned spaces. To the small room into which he had been led two hours before, entered two men wearing close-fitting black suits that covered their bodies and heads. Without saying a word, they signaled for Adam to follow them with cold politeness. Stunned and powerless, he rose and joined his guards.
They marched silently down a wide corridor, passed several closed doors and finally stopped in front of a door that appeared exactly like that of the cabin he had just left. One of the guards raised his arm and extended the back of his hand toward the door. Adam immediately realized, without any explanations, that the guard was doing that to allow the recognition of the chip implanted (implachip ©) inside his hand. He recalled with a smile the implant his father had in his hand and the frustration he’d expressed each time he needed to open a door manually. The memory of his deceased father was like a sharp blow and he felt his feet buckling under him. It’d been a long time since such an intense memory of his dead parents had engulfed him and the pain stabbed his back and travelled down to his legs. His guards noticed his collapse and hurried to support him before he could fall down. He clung to them for a brief moment, regained his breath and steadied himself. The door was swallowed into the wall and the three of them entered a large white room. The guards let go of him and went out of the room silently, leaving him alone. Adam felt he was standing in the middle of a sealed white cube – the walls of the white room where barren of shelves and paintings, a small table and simple looking armchairs were the only furniture, the sensation was definitely unpleasant.
“You may sit down,” the voice of a woman was heard behind him. He turned around quickly and stared at a woman with the darkest skin he had ever seen. Like most women in the world, she was ageless, tall and slender, her face curiously angular and her large dark eyes appearing like two fiery brands. The woman ignored his embarrassed stare, walked past him and sat in one of the armchairs. When she’d passed him by, a gentle and unfamiliar scent had engulfed him for a moment. He followed her example, sat on a different armchair and waited.
“Do you have any idea why you’re being chased?”
He heard the trace of a foreign accent in her English, but could not recognize its origin. In spite of the fact that each superpower had maintained a single main language, English remained the official world-language. Besides that, the translation implant (Transplant ©) in his ear allowed him to understand any spoken language on the face of the globe. “No one is chasing me,” Adam answered decisively.
“Really?” the woman sounded amused, “so who were they?” she pointed up toward an unspecified direction.
“Who?” asked Adam, “oh… you must mean the people I’ve stolen the hovercraft from. I guess they wanted it back.”
“And they would have taken it back had we not interfered.”
“Oh, yes,” Adam remembered, “thank you for that.”
The woman nodded and a thin smile stretched across her face, “Adam First,” she said appreciatively, “half the world and its French sister are after you.”
Adam lunged from his place abruptly. “Where do you know my name from?”
“Settle down, kid,” the woman said, “if I were one of ‘them’, you wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
“Who are you and what do you want from me?”
“These are not the right questions,” said the woman, “what’s more important to understand is - who are you, Adam?”
The boy hesitated before answering, “I’m the last base, aren’t I?”
“Is that what Joseph Stein told you?” the woman asked and Adam noticed a worrisome cloud passing over her face. But the cloud immediately evaporated and she regained her composure.
“Do you know Joseph?” Adam was surprised. The woman didn’t answer, but her smile betrayed her satisfaction of his confusion.
A suited guard entered the room, carrying a tray with food and drink. He placed the tray on the table between them and immediately left the white room.
“You must be hungry,” said the woman, “eat and we’ll continue our conversation later.” Adam hesitated for a brief moment, and then began to devour the food. It had been a long time since he had last eaten and the smell of the food reminded his body just how famished he was. The woman followed the devouring boy with amusement, poured him some water into a large glass and leaned back with great satisfaction.
Once he was done eating, he wiped his face with a wet wipe the woman had offered him and stared at her pointedly. “You’re hiding here, aren’t you?” Adam felt that the woman was hesitating whether or not she should answer. “They’re chasing you as well,” he half guessed, half determined, “that’s why you are here, we are here, below water.”
Hesitation was apparent on the woman’s face before she answered: “Once you are willing to learn about us, perhaps you will also learn more about yourself and the role you are destined to play.”
“I have a role to play?” Adam asked sarcastically, “so this is all a game, or a play?”
“You can definitely view all of this as a game that’s larger than life itself,” the woman answered, “I’m Elizabeth, Ellie, as everyone here calls me. Before we continue, I have to inform you of two unpleasant things.”
“OK,” said Adam and sprawled himself comfortably in the armchair. He waited for her to speak, but was not at all ready for what the woman actually had to say.
“Your friend Naomi was killed when she tried to run away from the agents that abducted you.” Adam felt as if an arrow had pierced his heart. He lunged from his seat again, his muscles tightening, ready to continue his escape. His body was filled with pain and tears welled in his eyes. Ellie wanted to embrace him, to comfort him but knew that the second thing she had to tell him was just as bad. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I know how much she meant to you.” She saw how much her words had influenced Adam. The thought of rescuing Naomi had given him strength during his flight, provided him with the necessary motivation to survive, matured him. Now, right in front of her eyes, she saw the confidence he had demonstrated leaving him; he became a child again. ‘Hang on,’ she called to him in her heart, knowing that what she had to tell him next was even more significant. She cleared her throat and said, “Take a deep breath and hold the air in your lungs for as long as you can.” He did as she requested and Ellie placed her finger on the side of the boy’s neck. All at once, all the tension he’d experienced from the moment he had begun to run was released. She supported him and helped him to sit in the armchair once more. “Relax, lean back and listen to everything I
have to say,” he nodded slowly and Ellie continued to speak: “I’m really sorry to be burdening you with such terrible news. I did not choose to be the bearer of ill tidings, but I have no choice and neither do you.” Adam continued to sit silently, his face became expressionless and Ellie wasn’t sure if anything she was saying was penetrating the mask of indifference he was now wearing. She continued anyway: “Naomi was taken by the kidnappers to a hiding place where she was bound and tortured as part of their efforts to discover where you might go. They did not need to torture her, it would have been sufficient to have her interfaced to find out everything she knew, but no, they’ve decided to torture her and finally, to murder her as well, when she tried to escape.” Ellie drew silent once more and studied Adam with concentration. It appeared to her that with every new piece of information, his face had become more indifferent. “I’m telling you this because I want you to realize everything they have done to her, was done as an act of intimidation, declaring: ‘watch out, we are not taking any prisoners while coming after you.’ I hope you understand what this means.” Adam nodded his head. He wiped his tears angrily and straightened in the armchair.
“What was the second thing?” he asked her in a dim voice.