Out of Body Universe - Part One
Page 8
***
The sound of the metal door opening dragged Nathan back to the present, the OBU. A beefy police officer walked in; he pulled the chair out from underneath the desk, and sat opposite Nathan. He lit up a cigarette and blew a large cloud of blue smoke at Nathan’s face. Well, it seemed everyone was smoking dope in Amsterdam, including the police interrogator, thought Nathan.
“What’s your name?” He spoke English but with a strong Dutch accent.
“Nathan. Nathan Jenkins.”
‘Okay, Nathan, my name is Bart; Bart Vos, your interrogator.” He blew another cloud of blue smoke. “Nathan, who are you really?”
“Mr. Vos, I’m only a tourist from Sydney, Australia. You know Sydney, don’t you?”
“Of course I know Sydney, the place with the seashell Opera House. But Nathan, you are not an ordinary tourist. Please tell us your real identity; it will save us all the trouble of having to find out.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about; I am just a normal tourist and this is my very first time visiting Amsterdam.”
“Well, let’s talk about what happened in the bar today.” He dragged on his cigarette a couple of times in quick succession, and then pushed a button on the desk. “Watch it yourself. Quite an astonishing performance, I have to admit.”
On the large one-way glass window, a video began playing: a recording of Nathan fighting against the attackers in the bar.
“They were trying to kill the tourists. I merely did my duty as a citizen; I stopped the killing and saved the innocents.”
“Innocents? We will get to that soon, but you are no ordinary tourist if you can beat up six armed guys with your bare hands; so tell us, who are you really?”
“I have told you that I am just a normal guy from Sydney.”
“Normal guy; where did you learn how to fight like that?”
“Today I saved a lot of lives; you should be giving me a medal, not interrogating me.” In his mind, Nathan was also wondering if his newly discovered fighting skills were the result of his meeting with Master Wuwei.
“Okay, let’s talk about the ‘innocent’ people you saved today.” The interrogator pushed the button again. An enlarged photo of a young guy appeared on the one-way glass: the girl in the male’s face mask. “Is this the guy you saved?”
“Yes, he is one of them.”
“But he is not what you think he is.” The interrogator pushed the button again; beside the guy’s face, the girl’s face appeared.
It was a high-resolution photo; Nathan could really see her long red hair and blue eyes clearly. Yes, it was her, exactly as he had seen her in the bar, so it was not him being delusional; he had seen her real face, but how could he see through people’s masks? Besides, Gary didn’t see the girl’s real face with his seekers. While Nathan was wondering, the interrogator spoke again.
“You can see that he is in fact not a him, but a her. Her name is Mary O’Brian, an Irish woman and the most wanted terrorist in the world. You have heard about her, no?”
“No. Never.”
“Nathan, normally we would think you were a member of Mary O’Brian’s group, but because we haven’t witnessed fighting skills like you demonstrated tonight before, we are giving you the benefit of the doubt that you didn’t know who you were dealing with. Tell me, Nathan, where have you been during the last five years if you have never heard about her?” He used his cigarette to point at Mary’s photo.
“Well…” This was actually the question that Nathan kept asking himself since he had found out he was fifteen years in the future. “Well, I woke up this morning and found that I had just gone fifteen years into the future. I suppose that I must have had an accident and lost my memories.”
The interrogator thought about it for a few seconds, and then blew more smoke rings at Nathan. “I suppose that’s possible.” Just then, a light began to flash on the desk beside the button. He stood up and walked out of the room without a word.
Very soon he returned, followed by another police officer.
“Nathan, we believe that you didn’t know who Mary O’Brian was and acted on good faith to save the innocents.”
“Thanks. By the way, Mr. Vos, who were the attackers in the bar?”
“They were the special field agents of Interpol.”
“Oh, I am so sorry I injured police officers.”
“Don’t worry about that too much; with some healing software, they will soon get over it, even forgetting about the pain altogether.”
“Why didn’t they use guns when they were hunting the most wanted terrorist in the world?” asked Nathan.
“We don’t want to injure or kill bystanders, do we?”
“What happens if someone is killed in OBU? Would he die in the real world?” asked Nathan.
“So you are really an OBU virgin; if you are killed in OBU, the violent signals would cause your brain permanent damage, so yes, you would die.”
“It’s very fortunate I didn’t kill anyone in the bar.”
“It’s your lucky day, Nathan; if you had killed someone, you would be in big trouble. For now you are free to go, but you need to inform us immediately if Mary O’Brian tries to contact you.”
“Of course, Mr. Vos; I will do my best to assist the police in the fight against terrorists.”