by Toker, Dor
“Are you sure I’m encoded?” Adam asked time and again, knowing what the answer would be. His voice was muffled by the air purifying mask he was wearing on his face. Wearing a personal purifier had become non-obligatory in Jerusalem for several years now, as the city authorities managed to overcome the severe air pollution that had developed after the epidemic of twenty-six, but its residents and visitors preferred to continue and breathe through the purified air slits, until wearing the mask had become habitual. Not wearing a mask was considered distasteful at best and may even be interpreted as an insult, dishonoring the local residents.
“We’re all encoded, chick,” said Joseph without looking at him and Adam smiled to himself. It’d been awhile since he’d heard the nickname and now that he had heard it again, he discovered, much to his surprise, that he’d strangely missed it. “That’s the law,” Joseph added.
“You too?”
“I was,” answered Joseph, “I replaced it long ago.” He stopped for a moment and waited until Adam had arrested as well and turned to him. “Are you sure this doctor of yours knows the process?”
“No,” Adam answered calmly, “but I know that if a treatment like the one you’ve described exists, he’ll know about it and will also be able to perform it. He’s the doctor with a capital D, if you know what I mean.”
Joseph wasn’t especially pleased with the answer he’d received again and again from the young man but knew that for the time being, he had no other choice but settle for it. They continued to walk side by side, navigating their way through the narrow alleys, avoiding contact with the beggars and the rest of the people on the streets of the ancient city of Jerusalem.
“And if I’ll replace my blood,” Adam continued to interrogate him, “they won’t be able to locate me?”
Joseph hesitated a moment before answering: “Well, look,” he began, “it’s true for anyone else but you.”
“What do you mean?” Adam stopped in his tracks.
Joseph seemed undecided, considering whether he should share the information with Adam or keep it to himself. “They can crosscheck.”
“Crosscheck?”
“It’s very expensive,” Joseph explained, “but obviously, they have the necessary financial means.”
Adam was curious, “What’s crosschecking?”
“I’ve already told you they can follow the probability chains backward and forward into the future. As you probably know, there are principal probability chains and secondary chains. They’ve managed to track the major, significant rings and follow them; the entire Mendelssohnian theory is based on them. But,” Joseph continued to explain, “the secondary context rings are more difficult to follow. Actually, when I left, they’ve managed to progress three probability rings forward and only a few months before the events related to them actually took place. Obviously, it’s been a few years, which is an eternity as far as new technology is concerned. I can only assume they’ve progressed several rings more and widened the gap of time between the discovery of a ring and its occurrence. Supposedly, all they should have done is wait in the area of one of the major rings, allow you to complete it and then simply collect you from there,” the scientist explained, “that’s what they did seven years ago when they tried to kidnap you. Unfortunately for them, I got to you first, they’ve been chasing you ever since.”
“So now they know in advance everything I’ll do?”
Joseph examined the subcutaneous screen (Underscreen ©) on the back of his hand. “We still have time,” he said, “come on,” and he urged Adam to continue down the narrow alley. Adam obliged, and they continued to walk in silence.
“How much time?” Adam broke the silence with a seemingly indifferent tone.
Joseph could sense that below the surface Adam was a restless and agitated person. “I don’t know,” he answered, “we’d better hurry up and get to your doctor, and I hope he knows the process.”
“I told you there’s nothing in human medicine the doctor is not familiar with.”
“All right,” said Joseph, restless, “the main thing is that we’ll get there.”
“We’re here,” said Adam and stopped next to a wide iron door. Joseph examined the fancy door and muttered cynically: “Here’s someone who knows how to conceal himself well, a real master of secrecy.”
“He doesn’t need to hide,” Adam explained, “those who need his services are the ones that don’t want to be discovered. That’s the beauty of his business. He’s protected by all superpowers. Actually, there’s a joke on the street that says the status quo between the world powers is maintained only thanks to the doctor.”
“So how come I haven’t heard about him before?” Joseph persisted.
“Perhaps because you never required his services,” Adam fired, “whereas I have.” Adam knocked on the heavy door, which immediately opened with a silent movement. “Come on,” the young man led the older scientist, and they both entered the darkness beyond the iron door. Immediately after they had disappeared into the darkness, the door was closed with the same silent movement with which it had opened seconds before.
Further down the alley, a black-clad figure wearing a purification mask emerged from the shadows. The figure touched the back of its hand and said, “They’re here.” It listened to the instructions received in its inner-cranium earpiece (Ossicles ©), “Yes,” it added after a moment, “doctor Khaled has admitted them.” She pressed the back of her hand again and got away, elegantly leaping from shadow to shadow.”
Chapter 29
The entrance of Dr. Khaled Jalal’s clinic did not look anything like any other lobby Joseph had ever visited. The place looked more like a carpentry shop or an acrylic glass cutting factory than a doctor’s clinic. You wouldn’t expect a human clinic to have recycled cardboard boxes and electronic chips scattered all over the floor. The heavy smell of mold hung in the air and the place emitted a dusty and unhygienic atmosphere. The reception room was empty other than a tired looking bored receptionist who stared at an ancient led screen. Till now, Joseph was convinced Led technology screens were gone from the world for over a hundred years. His fear of Dr. Khaled intensified even more. They passed the reception area and entered another room through a low door. The doctor was waiting for them there. Adam smiled and embraced the short and hairless man who smiled back at him wholeheartedly and kissed him on both cheeks. Dr. Khaled wore round, frameless sunglasses with dark purple lenses that were fashionable years before Adam had been born. He held Joseph’s hand with both of his and shook with a wide pendulum-like motion. “Welcome to my humble abode,” he announced with a wide grin.
“Ahlan bik,” Adam completed the greeting, “may you always prosper and find livelihood.” Khaled seemed pleased with the reply and led them to a wide and comfortable looking floating couch (floating couch ©). They sat comfortably as the air-balanced furniture fitted itself to their bodies. The doctor signaled for another floating sofa to advance toward him. He sat in it, situated it opposite them, removed his glasses and wiped them with the edges of the engineered cotton-fiber shirt he was wearing. Joseph noticed that Khaled’s eyes were in tactical mode and couldn’t help but wonder why. On the other hand, since he wasn’t familiar with the doctor and had never heard of him before, he left his own eyes in a similar mode. The fact that Khaled was overtly nice had merely served make Joseph even more suspicious. He’d never trusted people who were too nice.
“So what brought you to me, my friends?” asked Khaled.
“We need a blood replacement,” answered Adam, “can you perform this kind of process here?”
Khaled became serious all at once. “Blood replacement?” he asked, “someone here is planning on disappearing for good?”
Adam didn’t reply, and the doctor turned to Joseph, smiling again: “I assume you’re also interested in the process?”
“Nope,” answered Joseph, “my blood’s fine just the way it is.” His liking for the doctor diminished by the second, but he
still wasn’t able to find a logical explanation for his aversion. Perhaps the fact that the process they asked him to perform was dangerous to Adam and the risk that Adam might die during the process of draining the blood from his body was much higher than normal. “Can you replace his blood with an untraceable liquid?”
The doctor turned serious again and answered: “I can. But it will cost you,” he immediately added. Joseph took an ancient looking magnetic card from his pocket.
“I’ve got the rights for the pneumatic door handle of the General Surface hovercrafts (GS Hover ©),” said Joseph, “You think that’s enough?” The doctor took the card and examined it closely. “It’s original,” Joseph assured him, even though he knew Khaled was examining his card with his ineye decoder (Ineye Searcher ©).
“Ok,” said Dr. Khaled, and accompanied Adam to a treatment bed semi-obscured in the corner of the room. He fished out an encoding card from his pocket and handed it to Adam. “I’ll need your signature here.”
Adam examined the card hesitantly. “What’s that?”
“It’s a binary signature that will super-codify each nano entering your body and transform it so it will be loyal to you alone. No one will be able to turn it against you.” Adam attached his thumb to the card, which beeped once it’d completed its mission and handed it back to the doctor. Khaled motioned toward one of the walls and a hidden door immediately opened. A male nurse entered, pushing a wide cart laden with blood exchange containers and a medical control box (Medical Xbox ©). “You need to get out of here now,” he instructed Joseph while inserting Adam’s encoding card into a slot in the control box.
“I’m not leaving him,” Joseph announced, “you’d better start with the preparations.”
“The moment I’ll start working, I’ll need to be focused on the patient alone,” Khaled said and motioned with his head toward Adam who was aided by the nurse to settle on the treatment bed. The nurse connected him to the medical control box, attached the two replacement arteries and connected the two draining tubes. He passed his finger on a touch-button at the back of the box, and an anesthetic began to flow from the system into Adam’s body. “I can’t be diverted. Either you’re getting out of here right now, or the whole deal’s off. Joseph began to protest, but Adam’s gaze stung him and instructed him to concede. He mumbled with insult and headed back to the lobby. “Your friend is a pain in the ass, he’s all stressed out,” Khaled turned to Adam, “doesn’t trust me.”
Adam smiled tiredly. “He doesn’t trust anybody,” he said, getting drowsier by the second, “he’ll be all right,” he added, “let’s get it over with.” He closed his eyes, allowing the doctor to secure the anesthetic mask. His mind had nearly sunk into a great darkness when a light flickered at the edges of his mind.
• Do we trust the doctor?
It was the voice in his head, speaking to him again.
• The data indicates a high-risk percentage
I trust him, thought Adam.
• Yes, but do we trust his expertise?
• Who’s we?
• Us, him, me and you
• Where are you?
• Everywhere
Adam felt an itching sensation all over his body. Somebody or someone was neutralizing the influence of the anesthetic.
• Are you inside me?
• We are inside everyone, outside as well. You know who we are
And then Adam realized:
• You’re… you’re the computers?
• We report to you, our Nagid
Adam immediately came to his senses. He was painfully aware of the danger involved with communicating with the computers. They could easily bring about his death by giving the wrong directive inside his body. The supposedly foolproof nano and micro particles could easily become destructive to their host body.
• Report
• Dr. Khaled is not experienced enough in performing the process and may make a mistake that will bring about your death.
• Can you help him?
• We will do as you order us, Nagid.
• Nagid?
• You, our Nagid
The light at the edges of his mind died out and an unconscious sleep returned to engulf Adam, leaving him to wonder why did the computers had chosen to expose themselves to him and what it all meant to the human race that was flooded with tiny intelligent super-computers.
Dr. Khaled Jalal waited for the nurse to leave the room as well and then began to pump the blood from Adam’s body. He knew the next few minutes, in which he would drain the red liquid, would be crucial to the patient’s fate. Adam’s life will depend on his own functioning as well as that of the medical control box.
Blood replacement was the common name for a complex medical process with a much longer and cumbersome name. In actuality, the treatment had little in common with its popular name. The blood wasn’t replaced, but filtered, then underwent a few stages of purification and re-initialization of all systems flowing in it. In each and every stage, a group of microbiological nanocells that were inserted into the blood sometime during the patient’s life was separated from it. Each such cell group was responsible for a different improvetegrated activity, therefore, it was important to gather all the cell groups and re-initialize them so no infected cells will remain in the system to re-infect it. The process took about an hour in cases in which there wasn’t a wide variety of improvetegrated cell types and about two and a half hours when the patient possessed a large variety of cells. Such was Adam’s case. In spite of his tender age, the amount of improvetegrated cells in his blood was much higher than average. Normally, there weren’t many complications involved with the process, but the Doctor took extra care and closely supervised each and every stage of the process. His resume didn’t include any failures, and he had no intention of ruining it now. Actually, Khaled himself injected some of the additives that flowed in Adam’s blood into it. These, the doctor simply replaced now, on the house, to more advanced versions, a fact he would proudly mention to Joseph, had he been next to him. A flicker in his eye-screens indicated that Joseph had sent him a message. He replied voicelessly that the process was progressing to his satisfaction and returned to check the control box data.
When the re-insertion stage arrived, a shrill beeping sound was heard in the room, cautioning against an intruder and warning lights began to flash on the doctor’s eye-screens. A tremor passed through the walls of the room and Khaled had to lean on the patient’s bed so it won’t move. Joseph stormed into the room. “We’re under attack,” he shouted, “how much time do you have left?”
“Three minutes,” the doctor said in a more relaxed tone than he actually felt, then added, “you need to delay them a bit longer.”
“I’m not sure I can,” said Joseph, “they’ve already broken the entrance door.”
“It will take them a while to locate this room,” said Khaled and began the process of separating Adam from the instruments. “How many of them are there?”
“I’ve seen three,” answered Joseph, “but I may have not seen them all.”
• Report to the Nagid
• Report
• The process has been successfully completed. Your blood is clean. The clinic is being attacked by hostile elements who want to harm you.
• Time?
• Two minutes and fifteen seconds
• Chances of survival?
• Above fifty
• Observe and report
• It shall be done
An additional blast was heard, and the room’s concealed door flew and almost hit the treatment bed. A figure barged into the room and before Joseph had a chance to raise his weapon, stunned him with a well-aimed blow to the diaphragm. Khaled continued to disconnect the instruments, as if nothing else was taking place in the room and began the sequence of reviving Adam. The figure approached the bed and examined the waking patient. When the doctor removed the anesthetic mask that had kept Adam dormant and sustained h
is life from his face, the figure recoiled and nearly lost its balance. Adam breathed heavily and blinked his eyes. He smiled to the doctor and sought Joseph. When he couldn’t see his friend, he raised himself until he was seated and examined the room with confusion.
“You’re back to life,” the doctor said.
“Yes,” Adam mumbled, then he noticed the figure standing next to him. He smiled at her and said, “So now you’re working for them, my princess?”
The warrior removed the mask from her head, and Natalia’s face was revealed to Adam’s eyes, the assassin from Mars. “How did you know it was me?” she asked, surprised and excited. Adam didn’t answer and continued to smile. “I didn’t know you were the target.”
“And now that you know?” he asked. Natalia didn’t answer. It’d been years since she crossed paths with him for a brief moment. Her first assignment under the commander’s leadership had been successful only due to that fateful meeting with Adam. She approached him and placed her hand on Adam’s. She remembered well that kiss, the last one, just before they’d parted. The chances they’d meet again were so infinitesimal that Natalia had chased Adam from her memories. Only in her dreams did she allow him to be her companion.
Khaled went to aid the recuperating Joseph. He wasn’t concerned about himself or his clinic; he knew well that he was protected from any threat thanks to the services he had more than once offered this or that corporation executive and military and government officials who wanted more than their position could offer them. Someone would pay for the renovation of his clinic, and his good name wouldn’t be damaged. On the contrary, the impression such an incident would create will merely serve to enhance the attraction to his services and increase the number of his clients. Of that he was certain.