“Alan!” he shouted. As soon as Alan saw Azmo, he was ready to expect anything from him. Miguel and Chris looked scared.
“No, I am not coming to fight. I need to tell you something you must know. It's about the “Company“. I found out terrible things, which they have been hiding for so long. You are the only person I could trust that the information I have to share will make a difference in the future.” Alan stood still. He walked close to Azmo and checked him for weapons. When he found nothing, he asked him to go to the small room.
“Why have you come to us? We are your enemies and I have nothing to tell you.”
“Please, you need to listen to me. I have been a fool all the time not realizing the truth when it has been in front of my eyes. The “Company” has developed a new weapon and it is going to use it on the people. Here, I have a disk, which will prove my words.” He handed the disk to Alan and both started checking it. Alan was going through the documents and photos. They played the videos containing the experiments with cloned humans. Alan's look became more and more worried. He was watching with disbelief and sadness.
“Azmo, why are you doing that? I thought you wanted to destroy us. You gave us out to the police before. Why now?”
“In the life of everyone there is a moment when they realize the truth. This moment came to me tonight when I found the disk, seeing what happened to my best friend. I will not let that happen to anyone else. I have always wanted to make a difference, but now seeing all these images, I realized I have been on the wrong side. I came here to warn you about their plan and that soon they would be ready to put it into action. We can stop them.” Alan looked again at the photos and one particularly took his attention. The man from the picture had a tattoo on his left hand, the exact same one, which Mike noticed at the meeting. He immediately asked Azmo:
“Who is that man with the tattoo?
“I haven't seen him before, but obviously is one of the researches from the “Company.” I see the sign on his uniform.”
“Strange, I remember that from somewhere and one of our men saw that tattoo on our last meeting when the police again intercepted it. We thought that man might be you.”
“It is true, I was at the meeting, but I didn't tell the police. I wanted to gather information about your future plans, but the police came earlier and I couldn't get anything. I then wondered who else could be sabotaging your meetings.”
“That is what we want to find out. Unfortunately, we have no time for that now. We must move before they do. We think to hit them this Sunday.”
“This Sunday? Do you have a plan? How many people are going to participate? What exactly are you planning to do there? You don't know where the machines are, you would be killed if you go without more information. Let me help you. I can gather what you need and will deliver it to you tomorrow.”
“Ok, but don't come here anymore. It is too risky. Leave your message to one of my roommates. He will wait for you in front of the hospital at 7 p.m. tomorrow.”
Azmo left the room and rushed down the stairs.
CHAPTER 13
The Three Men
Last night Azmo sent a copy of the disk to Erion, hoping that he would come up with something that could stop the “Company.” Today he was determined to find out where they keep the machines and when the experiment would take place. He sat at his computer and started searching the database for clues. Quickly navigated through the network—shared folders and found the same encrypted drive. This time he was confident that he would find a way around the encryption. After couple of hours, he managed to decrypt the disk and was able to read its contents. He saw terrible things and information, which revealed all backstage movements of the “Company.” There were secret documents, plans, photographs, names, dates — everything was there, including the location of the facility where they were keeping the machines and the access codes of the security doors. Azmo made a copy of the building plans and the information that Alan needed. He put it in an envelope, locked it in his desk, and headed straight to the level where the machines were. There was an elevator, leading to the experimental facility. Azmo was a high rank employee having access to the different security levels and departments. When he finally got to the place, there was no one around or inside. After entering the security codes, he went inside the lab. That was a huge laboratory full with different devices. Azmo recognized part of the room from the photos. After a quick look, he saw couple of cupboards on the left side of the lab and decided to check them out. There was couple of photographs on the inner side of the door of the first one. On one of them, he saw a man with a white uniform, shaking hands with another scientist. What struck Azmo was that this doctor had the same tattoo they saw with Alan on the pictures from the disk that he copied. That meant this man attended the last meeting of the “warriors” and somehow managed to enter inside unnoticed. ” Why was that man there, and how Alan could remember this man from another place? I hope to understand that very soon,” thought Azmo. He stayed there for too long. It was time for him to leave when he heard voices from outside. He managed to hide behind the cupboards before the people entered the lab. Three men went in, one of which Azmo recognized to be the man with the tattoo. The other two were his manager Mr. Filibert and one of the major investors of the “Company“: Mr. Basilius.
“We are ready gentlemen. It is up to you when to commence the experiment,” said the man with the tattoo.
“Excellent work Dr. Rob. I will inform Mr. Elred,” specified Mr. Filibert.
“Gentlemen, I need to be assured that this experiment will work. We cannot risk that to be a failure.”
“Mr. Basilius, I can assure you that the project is in secure hands and everything will be fine. Shortly after the experiment, we will have the whole city under our control and possibly after that the whole world could be ours.”
“All right, I leave everything to you Dr. Rob.”
“Now I propose to go back and enjoy the rest of the day playing golf. If you excuse me, I will have a conversation with Mr. Elred,” stated Mr. Filibert.
The three men left the lab. Azmo was a witness of something big. That terrible experiment was going to take place, but unfortunately, they were not certain about the date. He thought of Alan and his intention to attack this Sunday. He did not know what they were planning to do, but whatever it was, it had to be effective enough to stop the plan of the “Company.” He left the room and made it safely back to his desk. He was thinking of the ways this could be prevented, but nothing was coming into his mind. They had to neutralize everyone here in order to stop the plan, but this was almost impossible. The building was 24/7 under security surveillance and cameras were everywhere. It was a suicide mission going there, but Azmo realized he was the only man who could get them access and thus to stop the experiment from happening. On the other hand, if he did not help them, the whole city and soon half of the population would possibly be turned into living slaves and that meant the end of the human society. An end of many dreams, many lives would cease in a blink of an eye. He could not let that happen. Azmo understood the danger and the risk he had to take, but was ready to take it. One life lost is much better than the lives of million other innocent people. They had three days left.
CHAPTER 14
Time for Realization
It was 17:30 p.m. The sun was slowly descending and its rays were gently covering the earth before the end of the day. The room where the three men were living was almost dark. Shadows from outside were playing on the white walls. The objects in the room were standing silently, as if waiting for someone to interact with them. Dim light from the descending sun and darkness were intertwined with each other, gently going up and down, touching Alan who was praying. His head was down. The lights from the candles in front of him were slowly substituting the disappearing sunrays, shaping his silhouette on the wall, showing his figure radiating hope and sorrow. He knew if they do not do anything, the life for most of the people on Earth, could end its con
scious path. In his head, he was seeing past memories of joy and happiness, memories of his time with his parents and Anika. He was praying for all the people who knew nothing about the plan of the “Company.” The world as he knew it could end very soon, everything he loved could be lost. He thought of the million people out there made slaves and not even realizing it. He wanted to see the world a better place for everyone. Alas, the reality was different and no one else knew about the plan except them. Making this public would make the things worst. It could speed up the “Company'” plans, not giving them time to prepare. After all, who will ever believe that there was a machine capable of that? People were materialists and understanding something from that perspective would be very difficult. There was still time left. He prayed for every living creature on the planet, to the energy, which created the whole Universe to give him strength and a clear path for action.
Alan stood up, ready for the meeting in Adonis's home. He placed all necessary things in his backpack including the disk Azmo gave him. He still had two hours before the meeting when his vision went blurred and lost control of his legs. Alan sat on his chair and relaxed for a moment for the dizziness to pass away. Soon he opened his eyes and everything was ok. He stood up and was very surprised by the time. Thirty minutes left before the meeting. He thought his sickness is giving its signals. He went out and drove off to Adonis house. Arriving just in time, he got off his car and entered inside where everyone was waiting for him to start.
“We are all here. Let's begin,” said Adonis.
Alan interrupted:
“I have bad news. Last night I spoke with Azmo,” after that comment everybody looked at each other and let him continue. “He provided me with information, which changes everything.”
“Azmo? The boy who gave us out to the police?” Kane was skeptical.
“Yes.”
“It might be a trick. What else did he tell you?” Anika asked.
“We all hope for the best Alan, we are not trying to attack you,” Heops reassured Alan.
“I know. Listen people. Here is a disk that Azmo gave me last night, which reveals the terrible plan of the “Company.” I will save my words and will just show you.” He played the disk and the projector presented them everything in detail. Alan was showing them photographs and explaining who the people were, secret documents of the “Company” and finally the information about their last plan. He also showed them the man with the tattoo, which Mike met on the meeting.
“It was this man who told the police of our last meeting. Azmo was also there but he didn't do anything to stop us. This man according to the photos is part of the scientists' team of the “Company” and they are planning to commence the experiment very soon. We still do not know when, but Azmo will try to find out. He is our only hope to get that information. In other words, we need to stop them and act this Sunday. It is the day when there are no employees in the building and the security is half than the weekdays. I understand it's risky, but there is no other way.” The others were silent for couple of seconds, looking at the plans and the documents for the project. They could not believe that they were planning to do that. First, to express his concern was Kane:
“But that plan means… possibly almost half of the earth's population could be turned into zombies and that includes us as well…”
“Can we trust Azmo?” asked Anika.
“Azmo came to me, risking to be caught, providing us with this information … I think he is serious. He's been misled by the “Company” with false ideals and promises, which led to his separation from us. Now he starts to wake up. I would not come to my enemies with that kind of information just for fun.”
“Let's hope you are right Alan.”
“All right, I am leaving you the disk. I have to go and meet with Alberi.”
“Be careful,” Anika was worried.
Alan left and drove off to his good friend. As he reached the house, he entered and saw Alberi writing something. He came closer and saw him writing a goodbye letter.
“Alberi, what are you doing? Why?”
“Alan, the time has come when everything will change and I need to be ready to follow my path. That is why when I leave Earth, I want you to have what has left after me.”
“What are you talking about?” before he could continue, the old man interrupted him.
“All those years I have been looking after you… In my visions, I was able to see and hear what the men from the “Company” were going to do. They will launch a new program, which aim to enslave the human beings and they will not even realize it. There is a time in man's life when he needs to make a choice. I have made mine. You will understand one day.”
“I still don't understand what you are talking about old man. I mean … you know about this project …?”
“They are going to launch it on Monday early morning before everyone wakes up. You need to prevent that from happening. Now go.” Alan protested a bit, but was convinced to leave and to act fast on the things he had to do. He went back to his room in the hospital, where he started preparing a plan for the attack. Miguel and Chris sensed that something was not right with Alan and were concerned about his condition. However, they decided not to interrupt him while he was immersed in his thoughts.
Azmo was sitting on his desk with his head down, thinking of possible ways to break in and complete the whole operation without casualties. ” That would never be possible,” he thought. Later this afternoon, he was called for a meeting with the rest of his department. When they all gathered in one of the meeting rooms, Mr. Filibert started:
“This would be a very short meeting and if you have questions, please keep them for the end. As you already may have heard, our company is launching two new projects. These projects are aiming to help the people. As of now, we are not able to provide you with more information. The first one is going to be launched on Monday early morning. For that reason, we would like you to take Monday off, because here will be full with foreign observers and you would not be needed. That day would be paid, and you could come to work on Tuesday. The second project is in development and we cannot tell you more about it now. Are there any questions?” There were no questions from the people, and the manager ended the meeting. Azmo was confused. ” There was a second project?” he thought. In his mind, he did not want to think about that now. He had the date of the launch, which he needed to communicate to Alan tonight. He left the office and drove to the hospital where Miguel was waiting for him. Seeing Azmo's worried face Miguel was sure that something was not right but couldn't ask. He took the envelope and brought it to Alan who was developing the plan.
“Alan, here is an envelope from the man you was expecting.” Alan quickly opened it and was obviously delighted to see that Azmo was telling the truth. ” He came back,” thought Alan.
They knew the date. It was up to them to make the move.
CHAPTER 15
“Fading Nation”
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