“Then we hit them again… harder. They were already reeling from the first attack when Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore were bombed with vengeance. Within a week, the country called Pakistan didn’t exist anymore. We had won. If you think this world is a dystopia, just try to imagine what the world would have looked like had our attacks not succeeded. I wouldn’t be talking to you had we lost the war with Pakistan.
“But that was just the beginning. International tensions were escalating fast. First, America and China provided covert support to the war through money and weapons. And soon, they too joined in. Hostilities grew, and new fronts opened. One by one, more countries were pulled into the war. Old grudges resurfaced along with new weapons.
“World War III had begun and, every single country, that had half a ton of gunpowder to spare and dozen able men to light a match, was pulled into the ring.
“World War III lasted for a year. And in that year, 80% of the world population was wiped off this planet. The remaining 20% was either dying or killing each other; not for any jingoistic nationalism or military pride, but for food and water. Few governments remained and even fewer bothered about the borders on the map. The war pushed us back to the dark ages of the mankind.
“That’s the beauty of a nuclear war—” he sighed “—no one wins.”
He opened his eyes. Through his intimidating tattoos and his tough face, I glimpsed a man with profound pain. He picked-up his glass and walked over to the window.
“The real implications began two years later,” he said staring out of the window. “All the dust and debris thrown in the space by the bombardment remained suspended in air, blocking the sunlight. The temperatures dropped across the world. First winter was harsh, the second... catastrophic. None of the trees and plants survived the second winter, our numbers dwindled even further. Now, it is estimated that only 1% of the human population survives today, not to mention million other species that have been made extinct. The world that took millions of years to evolve was destroyed by us in a blink of an eye.
“Oxygen was not a problem – with far fewer humans to breathe, the remaining oxygen in the air was sufficient to last us for centuries even without plants to replace it. But food was a bigger problem. There were no crops and very few animals. And then, from the rubbles of the old Earth, emerged NeoEarth Corp.
“I’ve heard that name somewhere,” I said. “Wasn’t it on the hunter that had attacked me? Who are they?”
He nodded. “NeoEarth Corp. is everything now. They are the only government, only currency, only law and the only business left on this planet. They started off as an industry. They found a way to process any kind of meat and remove its contamination to a great degree. Greater the necessity, better the invention they say. And there was no bigger necessity than NeoEarth’s Processing units. You feed them animals – any animal – cats, dogs, rats... humans; and it churns out tolerable chunks of meat nuggets. These Processing units are the only thing that are now standing between life and death of our species.
“In the process, by supplying these Processing units on lease, the top men of NeoEarth Corp. have become incredibly rich and powerful. So much so that they are now called Overlords, for they are no less than the Gods who control every life on earth. And above all the Overlords reigns the Supreme Overlord—the most powerful of them all—no one has seen him, but the legend says that he is man of prescience. He sees everything, and he hears everything. After thousands of years of unsuccessful campaigns by the Kings and the Generals, finally there is one man who truly rules the entire planet – the Supreme Overlord.
My heart sank. I could guess who he was. The other Iqbal had burned the entire world and ruled on its ashes as the Supreme Overlord. My suppressed anger surfaced back. I thought about letting Chotu know everything. But this Chotu was a man I didn’t know. And he didn’t have a reason to trust me or help me.
Evening was setting in. Protector walked to the switch and turned on the lamps. From the window I could see lights from several trucks flashing in as they turned a corner. Several soldiers were lining up in front of their trucks to receive their gear. It looked like a military preparation of some sort.
“NeoEarth Corp now owns most of the human life on this planet. In exchange for food, shelter and safety, people mortgage their life to NeoEarth corp. Those who do, are brought inside the safe zones and provided for. In return, if their name comes in the lottery, they are processed for the sake of the rest.”
“What about those who don’t mortgage themselves? Those who live outside these safe zones.”
“Atheists. We specialize in hunting them for NeoEarth Corp and process them for our food.”
A silence occupied the room for next several minutes. He was perhaps more stirred than I was. For me it was fifteen years of a dreadful past told in a single afternoon. But for him, it had played one day at a time; he had lived through all those horrors. He has seen the suffering and pain that I haven’t. For a moment I thought about that 8-year-old jolly kid at Ramesh bhai Tea Stall with dreams in his eyes and wings on his back. Everything was lost... everything. Including that boy.
“We humans are incredibly resistant you know. We strive to live regardless of the hostilities thrusted upon us. Conditions go from bad to worse and we proudly wave the flag of evolution and continue to not only survive but thrive over the environment. Over the course of time, our civilization has turned onto itself, making bad choices one after another and yet every time we came on top.
“But that overwhelming perseverance is our bane. We attribute our survival instincts to our superior evolution without taking a blame for hostilities that triggered those instincts in the first place. We never question, we never reason why it is the way it is. We don’t look at ourselves enough. We behave as if it was in natural order of things to have turned out that way. And we adjust. But it wasn’t nature that did this to us. We did this to ourselves. The most horrifying part is that we took it as the new normal and refused to learn. And we will make same mistakes again. And the cycle will continue unless we put an end to it. I will put an end to it… and to do that, I need your help.” He breathed close. “Tonight, is the first step of achieving that goal.”
“Me? How? And what is tonight?” I gulped.
In reply, he extended a small note from his pocket. “Read this. I got this intel from one of my spies.”
I took the note from him. It had only one cryptic message:
Ghost has the Dames with all parts intact
“I don’t get it,” I said, trying to see if I had missed something obvious.
“I didn’t expect you to,” Protector took it back. “Atheists. Most of the time they are small bands living away from us and avoiding our bots outside the safe zones. When they drift closer to the city for savaging, we pick them up for processing. My men thought you were one of them when they caught you. They are mostly scattered and uncoordinated, but lately a leader has emerged amongst them. He has brought the Atheists together and planning a revolt against NeoEarth. Many people are looking for him, but he manages to give us slip like a ghost. That’s his name on that note. Honestly, I didn’t care much for the Atheists earlier. They are like a bunch of idiots with a death wish… and I would have ignored them if not for the Dames.”
“What is Dames?”
“Dames is a codeword for the ultimate weapon that they possess. A source of their power; a device so powerful that it can start wars. No one really knows the nature of this weapon. Some say that it’s some sort of EM bomb that can fry everything in 10-mile radius. Others say that it’s a psychic device that can make people bend to your wishes. Whosoever acquires this weapon, NeoEarth Corp. will pay anything in return – even Overlordship.”
“And that is what you want?”
Protector nodded. “Absolutely. This weapon is my ticket to the power. Once I obliterate Ghost and his army, Supreme Overlord will grant me unimaginable power. From ruling a city, I will rise to ruling a country.”
; “And then what, Ch… Protector?” I said. “We will eat ourselves to the extinction?”
“I understand what you imply Iqbal Bhaiyya. I wish you remembered me better than that. I am not a short-sighted gangster hungry for power and riches without a purpose. Once I get access to NeoEarth’s resources, I will put them to proper use. I will do everything in power to find a way to restore this world the way it was before. I don’t know how it will happen or how long it will take, but once we reverse the tides of time, I need you to be my side.”
“Why me?”
“There are very few who remember the world from before. Even I was very young to remember what that the world used to be like. Once I conquer this new world, I need your help in restoring it to the ways of the old world. I need you to civilize us once again. Can I count on you, Iqbal?“
His omission of ‘Bhaiyya’ was not lost on me. He had certainly become a different man. I pondered upon his proposition. The other Iqbal had pushed us to extinction. As a Supreme Overlord, he remained the unchallenged messiah of the world. But if there was a chance that Protector can become a equal force, he needed all the help to stand against Iqbal. Secondly, Protector’s elevated status could make it easy for me to get closer to the other Iqbal and… I might be able to correct my past mistakes.
“Where is this weapon?” I asked finally.
He smiled taking my question as my agreement. “Well, that’s a surprise for tonight.”
###
Protector’s army was huge. Hundreds of the trucks fitted with armors and guns rumbled through the snow-covered streets as thousands of his foot-soldiers followed. Every man, soldier or otherwise, had volunteered to fight the Atheists, driven mostly by the promise of freedom from mortgage. I felt a tingling sensation as I noticed scores of Hunter bots floating noiselessly behind Smokie’s truck. Soldiers wore white uniforms and tried to march in three files with a military precision, failing at it. While leaving the mansion, I noticed that even the zone sentries have been pulled in for the battle leaving the bare minimum behind. Clearly, Protector was not leaving anything to chance to acquire this weapon. Whoever that Ghost was, I wondered if he stood any chance against such an army.
I rode on an open body truck, similar to the one in which I was brought in, alongside Protector who was presently lost in his thoughts. A couple of soldiers flanked him as I stood at the back, trying to keep my balance as the convoy passed through uneven land. I noted with a certain discomfort that I didn’t have a weapon. Protector either didn’t trust me completely or simply forgot to offer me one. I shrugged those thoughts out of my mind. Whatever was the reason, I wouldn’t need it as long as I am on the truck with him.
We passed through a large crater-like hole quarter-mile across. Protector told me that this was the ground zero of defining explosion fifteen years ago - Chinnaswamy stadium. Not a single brick had remained intact of the stadium from the explosion. A bigger shock awaited me as the convoy turned to the Raj Bhavan road.
“Is this where they are hiding?” I asked with a sense of wonder as the truck we were standing on rolled closer to our target.
“Yes. Ghost is a genius.”
‘This’ was Vidhan Saudha – the seventy-year-old architectural and engineering marvel of India. 150 feet tall and covering an area more than half a million sq ft, the majestic structure filled our sight even from far away. In a miracle of sorts, most of the structure had survived the humanity’s worst. The Ashoka pillar with its four lions on top of its central vestibule, proudly pierced the sky. A battery of pearl white pillars that supported the structure, looked similar to Greece’s Parthenon but outmatching them in their size by a factor of two.
The four-story structure, which was built with Bangalore granite, was inspired from 5 millennia old Dravidian era architecture that had helped shape the culture and civilization of the region. For decades Vidhan Saudha served as the legislative building where laws were made and debated. Ironically, it would be the seat of a major battle for the control of a lawless civilization.
The snow, which covered the outline of the building, glittered in light as the mobile flashlights were turned towards it. Vidhan Saudha looked like a palace readying itself for a coronation of a new king.
One of the soldiers on our truck pulled out a walkie-talkie and gave it to the Protector.
“Listen up commanders – line up your men at least 20 deep behind that fence. Smokie, you and your Hunters will take the central flank. Keep them in a moving pattern. No one will move a muscle till I say so. Buzzer, get me more information on Ghost’s army. That open ground looks like a big problem.”
The commanders aligned themselves to the orders. Soon, the entire length of the fence was lined up with thousands of men with their commander's trucks standing in front providing a shield from possible snipers. The army was so big that the last ranks even spilled up to the rubbles of High Court. If one looked closer, it was easy to see alterations to their uniforms to accommodate for individual physical deformities. Some weren’t even in uniform, mostly people who volunteered to Protector’s call hoping to be free from their mortgages. They formed the front rank. I felt pity for them.
The other side of the battlefield was unusually quiet. The Vidhan Saudha building looked calm with the lack of activity. Was the spy wrong about the weapon’s location?
My doubts were put to rest by Buzzer’s crackling voice coming through the walkie-talkie. “Boss, the intel was correct. I sent some Crawlers with infrared ahead, it shows about a hundred men on every floor. They are hiding behind the pillars and the rooms... armed to the teeth. Ghost has pulled all the stops... wouldn’t it be for nothin’. The 3rd floor on the north side is most loaded, that’s where they must be storing the DAMES.”
Protector’s eyes turned to the right cupola of the Vidhan Saudha building which was topped with a metal.
“No heavy artillery then, everyone. I don’t want our jackpot to get busted just because some trigger-happy chum was keen on pleasing his commander,” said Protector.
“No heavy artillery. Noted boss,” Smokie said. From distance I could see twin lights from his two cigarettes and a small cloud of smoke that cigarettes have spewed above him.
“Boss one more thing,” Buzzer said with concern. “Ghost has the advantage of height... but they haven’t fired a shot since we got here. There is some trap or somethin’.’”
“Might be,” said Protector. “Keep the men behind the fence. We’ll send in the Hunters first. SMOKIE—“
“Always the Hunters,” Smokie mumbled. “ALWAYS the Hunters.”
“I’ll get you a hundred Hunters if I get the DAMES. Now get them moving. Target the men and not the building.”
“As you say boss,” he said. “But don’t forget about my hundred Hunters. The new model.”
Smokie’s Hunters spread out over the fence with four long rows floating one on top of other. I realized that they were aligning themselves to attack all the four floors at once. I marvelled at the coordination of Hunters. On Smokie’s cue, the Hunter bots, in a swarm of hundreds floated past the fence and rapidly moved towards the building. I watched with bated breath as they passed through the ground and closed onto the building like a fishing net tightening about a large fish.
200 ft.
100 ft.
Why weren’t Ghost’s men firing? What were they waiting for? If the Hunters reached the building it was game over for Ghost. But the reason became clear soon.
As soon as the swathe of bots, traveling in a perfectly straight line with considerable speed, reached within 50 feet of the building, they crashed into a hidden barrier, glowing in bluish hue at the point of contact before dropping dead to the ground with sparks coming out of them. Shield!
“Noooooo...” Smokie cried, his cry audible even without the walkie talkie.
Some bots fired the beams at the building, but the shield absorbed the beam as first rainfall being sucked in the dry land, glowing just for a moment as it harmlessly soaked the bea
m.
Protector screamed, “turn them back, turn them back.”
Remaining Hunter bots turned around quickly and that is when several men appeared on the floors. They started firing in the direction of runaway bots, their bullets marking a small glow as they passed through the invisible shield.
“EM shield,” said Protector grinding his teeth. “That bastard. This is why they weren’t firing at us; it would have given away their Shield.”
“Smokie. Status.”
“We’re fucked boss,” Smokie bellowed. “Only twenty came back.”
“Keep them away from the shield, Smokie. Buzzer, find out more about the shield. Rest of you, we’ll fight this man to man now. EM shield can stop the bots, but it can’t stop our men. Everyone! Wedge formation. Attack on my command.”
A rallying cry erupted, and thousands of soldiers charged towards the building with their guns blazing. Thousands of the bullets flew in the air. It was a like a war-zone. Commanders were shouting orders in their radios. Ghost’s guys were responding with equally heavy firepower. Soon it was clear that Protector’s army was at a huge disadvantage despite having numbers. We were at the lower ground and the open area between the fence and the building meant that we were sitting ducks for them.
Moreover, we couldn’t use the heavy artillery, but they could, and they were. Rockets were raining from above on Protector’s men. Not a single man even reached up to the building.
“Bad news, boss,” Buzzer’s voice said. “That EM shield is super dense... Hunters and our fancy lasers are useless against it. But I found out that it is powered by a generator on the south side of the building. If I can get my men inside that shield then I can kill it.”
Protector’s face hardened. “Let’s create a gap, Buzzer. I’ll give you a signal once there is an opening.”
But there wasn’t an opening as multiple waves of attack proved to be ineffective. It was a blood bath and the grounds were strewn with hundreds of mutilated bodies. The Accountant was directing his men who dragged the dead bodies and loaded into the waiting trucks. He must be a happy camper today having closed so many mortgages. I thought bitterly. Smokie was still in a shock with the loss of his Hunters. Close to him, the remaining Hunters hovered idly. And that’s when an idea struck in my mind.
123 Tomorrows Page 19