Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  As Moke closed his eyes and nodded off, he could hear a piercing voice from the back of his mind saying, “And speaking of dead people! You can bet your sweet ass that Captain Ronald James Harris is probably thinking of the best way to kill that back stabbing asshole that used to be his best friend! Ya hear that, Moke! Someone might be wearing your hair and jawbone to a party real soon!”

  In the dream, Moke remembered how he sat in the sand crying when he was a little boy. The beach was white, and the sky was a beautiful light blue. But yet he felt sad, until he heard another boy’s voice saying softly, “Don’t cry Moke…I’ll be your friend.”

  Moke found himself slipping to darkness. Familiar faces soon emerged from the darkness. He found himself on a dark city street with four dangerous-looking young men staring at him. One sounded angry as he said, “How dare you show your Royal face around here…we’re gonna mess that pretty face up for all that bullshit you’ve talking about us!”

  From behind him, the voice of another angry teenager shouted, “Hey, punks! If you mess with my friend, you mess with me!”

  The darkness returned and he heard his Aunt Ulu’s voice, “Your actions have become very inappropriate young man…and these actions of yours, and the poor choices that you have made, could be a tremendous problem for me. How would it look if one of Highest Judges on this world had a boy in her care, who became an Immoral? Such shame could ruin my future chances of becoming a High Senator! You will not bring shame to our good family name, Moke Kalapana, I shall send you someplace where you will learn how to act like the Royalty you are. You are going to a place where you will learn the discipline necessary, to fulfill your duty to your planet and your people.”

  He suddenly heard another, terrible voice coming from the darkness, “Stop sniveling, boy. Your father is dead and you must be brave.”

  Another voice from the darkness then began to sound reassuring, “Boys…if you do exactly as I say…you will be treated with respect, honor and you will become someone of great privilege. I love and respect you like sons…welcome to the good life. Welcome to my family.”

  Then from a terrible darkness, the young boy’s voice said confidently, “Don’t worry, Moke…I’ve got your back.”

  Moke felt his stomach dropping as if he were on a roller coaster ride. He felt as if he were flying through the air. In the dream, he was sitting behind the wheel of a large, fancy hovercar, flying as fast as he could down a laser highway. The red beam went on into the darkness, high above the Ailanian plains, for what seemed to be an eternity.

  In the dream, Moke was driving a hovercar as fast as it could go. As he felt the pure adrenaline charged joy of acceleration, Moke looked to his right, and he saw Ronald James Harris as a young man with long, blonde hair. Harris was wearing a black leather jacket, and looking like he was having the time of his life.

  In the dream Moke could hear his own ecstatic voice saying, “This is the way life should be…living it on your own terms! Just doing whatever you want and getting away with it…I’m telling you, Iki…I ain’t gonna let the cops, my Aunt Ulu, or anyone in the corrupt government of this planet tell me what to do ever again! I wanna tell this whole world to kiss my ass! I wanna see it burn someday, Iki! I wanna see everything those Moralist assholes built on Ailana burn to ashes!”

  In the dream, Moke remembered Harris saying, “And I’m gonna help you burn it, my friend…”

  Suddenly, he could hear a piercing voice from the back of his mind saying, “And speaking of dead people! You can bet your sweet ass that Captain Ronald James Harris is probably thinking of the best way to kill that back stabbing asshole, who used to be his best friend! Ya hear that, Moke! Someone might be wearing your hair and jawbone to a party real soon!”

  Then, without warning, Moke saw the darkness part itself to reveal a memory of Ronald James Harris, with an evil smile on his face, as his hands were dripping blood.

  “Come on, Moke don’t feel so bad…this is what you wanted isn’t it? Remember, freedom isn’t free…and sometimes, the tree of liberty has to be refreshed with the blood of our enemies…”

  While he slept, Moke felt his brain going numb from a stressful memory. He held his breath and felt his heart starting to beat faster and faster as a voice from his past shouted, “Who is Fats Manawilli!? Who is Fats Manawilli?!”

  In the dream, he remembered the bright light being shined in his face as the coarse voice shouted, “Tell me, boy! Who is Fats Manawilli? Who is Fats Manawilli?!”

  In the dream, he remembered how the back of someone’s large hand, smacked him across his face.

  “Huh!” Moke was startled awake by the nightmare. He sat up in bed and looked at his chrono. He had fallen asleep for fifteen minutes. Jalapo was now extolling the virtues of Zoppy’s chili, and bitching about the weather. Moke felt his head ringing with stressful thoughts, “There are many people on Ailana, who are unhappy with the status quo… very few people know what is really happening on Ailana…and even fewer people realize that there is talk of revolution going on…and what did you do to stop it Moke Kalapana? What did you do to make a difference? Pray your gods are merciful to you, Moke Kalapana…because someday real soon…you’re going to have a whole lot of blood on your hands because of all the choices you made…”

  Location: Audrey’s Town House… Kana’Uvalu District…Polynea.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 1900 Hours.

  For the briefest of moments, Jack lost his sense of civic duty, and his perception of what he knew to be right and wrong as Audrey embraced him and locked her lips with his.

  While they kissed, Audrey felt a sensation of freedom and pleasure that she had never felt before, she felt waves of emotion running through her entire body that she could not identify but did not want to stop.

  Jack opened his eyes and noticed how the light above her kitchen sink was on. “Ah shit…” He said softly as he removed his lips from her face and took a deep breath, realizing that another emotion had just snuck its way into the logical part of his mind. “Audrey…we can’t do this.”

  For a few confusing moments, Audrey wanted to protest, but she caught herself just in time as she said, “Please, Jack…I’m so sorry…I really want to…but I know…”

  “Don’t apologize…” Jack said softly as he looked away, “It’s just a lot of things…”

  Audrey bit her lower lip as she realized just how handsome and attractive he looked right now.

  Jack was about to say something virtuous about how their Moralist parents would have disapproved of what they had considered doing, when suddenly, his com rang. He looked at her with soft, sympathetic eyes and then answered it, “Bauman here.”

  Audrey sighed with discontent at first, but became worried as she saw how Jack’s eyes became wide with fright.

  “What?” Jack said as realized how she was looking at him. He quickly changed his demeanor so that he looked at Audrey with a serious, professional gaze as he said, “Agent Kuhio…what do you mean they just disappeared? How can an entire group of Makula Pilikoa’s men just disappear?”

  Audrey rolled her eyes, walked over to her couch and sat down. She did her best not to weep as she tried to deal with these feelings of loneliness and personal identity. The fact that she had never been able to keep a boyfriend in her life started to make her heart and mind ache when she heard Jack saying, “Well, they have to come out of the jungle sometime…and they’re not in the villages? Their vehicle is still parked on the road…well, where the hell are they then?”

  Audrey’s conflicting feelings were about to make her scream when her com rang. She picked it up off her coffee table and answered it. The voice on the other end did not seem happy to be speaking with her.

  She closed her eyes with disappointment as she said, “Another murder? Do we have any witnesses? Did anyone see anything? The security cameras were not operating again…so we have nothing to
go on. Get the body to the morgue and we’ll talk about it in the morning.”

  Audrey hung up and fell back into her couch mentally and emotionally exhausted.

  CHAPTER 15

  Location: The jungle of Sacred House.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 0900 Hours.

  The trail snaked its way through the lush, green jungle. Every rocky step could be felt through the men’s’ thick soled boots as they hiked down the trail. The air was full of buzzing insects and the sounds of chirping birds. The fifteen Ailanian men wore modern outdoor clothing and carried expensive backpacks. They hiked slowly in a single file line. A man with a scarred face, who was walking at the back of the line, sighed with relief as the sounds of nature were interrupted by the sound of his com ringing.

  “Hello…yeah, we’re about a kilometer away from you,” The man with the scarred face said as he looked at the GPS unit that was mounted on his wrist chrono. “I imagine we’ll be there soon, have the coffee ready for us…how’d we make out? Well, I estimate that everyone was able to pick up about fifty kilos of Makani each…it was a good crop for the last village we were in. Yeah, Makula should be happy…he’ll be able to make all the Cutz he wants with this year’s harvest…all right, talk to ya when we get there.”

  The man with the scarred face did not care that he was the last one in the line. He also didn’t mind carrying the com since it was a very lightweight model. He hung up and put the com back into his breast pocket as he thought, “Hopefully we’ll be getting out of this hot hell-hole before the sun causes the humid air to heat up like a pressure cooker…to hell with this jungle shit.”

  He slapped an insect that landed on his neck. He realized that he was already feeling moisture forming in his armpits. He looked down at his mud covered boots again, and tried to keep his balance. The last rain storm had soaked this place, but the trail was not too slippery yet.

  “Hopefully all this goddamn hiking is going to pay off soon…”

  His tranquil thoughts were interrupted and his eyes became wide with horror as his heartbeat began to race when he heard a noise that sounded like a laser rifle firing. He looked up and screamed when he saw that the man in front of him had blood gushing from the side of his neck.

  “What in the hell?!” He exclaimed as the man in front of him began to gag and cough up blood. “Oh my gods! Help! Danno needs help!”

  The birds stopped singing and began to flee the trees as laser bolts began to rain onto the group from high above the trail. One by one, the men fell to the ground, and rolled down the hill into the valley below. The man with the scarred face screamed as he saw a red mist bursting from his chest. He was not quite dead when he hit the ground. His heavy backpack gave his limp body the inertia it needed to roll down the hillside. He saw ferns and mushrooms rolling past him before everything went black.

  The sniper sighed with relief, and allowed his tense body to relax a bit, as looked at the men he had just killed from his vantage point in the dense bushes above. He realized how much his hands were shaking when he began to consider the fact that this was only the second time he had ever done this.

  The forest birds began singing moments later.

  The young sniper reached up and pulled the green bandana off his head. His long, black hair fell about his dark, Kupano face. He looked at the gauge on the radiocarbide ammunition clip that supplied his rifle with the firepower necessary to do this job and swallowed nervously as he realized it was running low. He reached into the pocket on his sleeve and pulled out a dirty com. His hands were shaking as he dialed it. He inhaled nervously as he held it up to his face.

  After a few moments, someone on the other side of the mountain range answered, “This is Kuhio.”

  The sniper replied, “Greetings…this is Homano…I’m on the west ridge of Kololulua valley…where are you guys?”

  “We’re falling behind schedule. We have someone with us, who is having trouble keeping up.”

  “We need that stuff you guys have on your backs, and we need it now. More of these guys will be coming…and I heard that Mahuli actually got shot at by the group he took out.”

  “We know…we’ll be there…don’t worry.”

  The sniper put his com away and pulled out a Makani cigarette from a pocket on his jacket. He lit the joint with a silver lighter and enjoyed a quick drag. His hands stopped shaking. He stood up, slung his rifle over his shoulder and began walking down towards the trail. After a few minutes of carefully sliding down the slope, he came upon one of men he had just killed, lying face down on the ground. The man was dressed in some very nice outdoor clothes, which were now covered in dirt and blood.

  He poked the man with the barrel of his rifle as he thought, “Gang members from the city, here to enslave us…and I will be part of the great movement that frees us from their tyranny!

  After kicking the scarred faced man onto his back, the sniper discovered that the man’s com was ringing. The sniper picked it up and covered it with his bandana before pushing the answer button.

  The voice on the other end seemed impatient and nearly irate. “What? Did you guys get lost or something? Where are you?”

  “Where are you?” the sniper asked with a grin on his face.

  “Just at the bottom of the trail, hurry up!” The voice on the other end then emphasized, “My dad is going to be pissed if we’re late!”

  With that, the sniper dropped the com, clenched his narcotic cigarette between his teeth, threw a lever on his gun forward, and began running down the trail as fast as he could. Moments later, the sound of laser blasts could be heard ringing through the jungle for kilometers.

  Location: A warehouse next to the Malki Tribute manufacturing plant….Polynea.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 0100 Hours.

  Kenny took a long sip from his large, foam coffee cup and stretched his neck. He wasn’t used to working such long hours anymore, but the adrenaline rush, from knowing he was about to commit a crime, wouldn’t even allow him to blink nevertheless get sleepy. Kenny looked over at the large, Kupano man who was sitting behind the wheel of the hovercar and said, “You’re name is Charlie…am I correct? We’ve never met…I assume that you are the strong, quiet type?”

  The large Kupano man didn’t make eye contact with him as he put the hovercar in park and powered it down. The large man took a sip of his own coffee and said, “Makula ordered me to be your driver and your bodyguard tonight…but the old man never said I was required to speak with you.”

  Kenny felt his nerves tingling with fear as he realized how easily this man could crush him. Kenny took a quick breath and said with a nervous voice, “A bodyguard, huh? Wow, I feel important. Well, Charlie, the truth is I’m not going to be in any kind of danger, so this should be real easy for you. I’m just going into that building across the street over there…and I’m going to plug into a mainframe. Once I deactivate the security for the building over there…the guys with the truck will be able to drive up, open the doors and load everything in about ten minutes. By the time they are done, we’ll be long gone. So there is really no need for you to leave the car…in fact, it would be better if you just stayed here. You’d be more of a getaway driver…if that’s cool with you.”

  The large, Kupano man didn’t even look at Kenny as he said, “Suit yourself, man.”

  “Uh yeah…” Kenny said nervously as he checked his laptop carrying case one last time to make sure all the items he would need were with him. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  “Take your time…this coffee is pretty tasty. I’d love some time to enjoy it.”

  Kenny opened the door, jumped out of the hovercar and quickly began walking over to a tall, gray building. He was able to open the front door easily with a pass key which was loaded with some codes he had previously stolen. Kenny smiled as the same key granted him access to the computer mainframe room without any trouble at al
l. Moments later, he was sitting at a terminal, plugging his laptop computer into three different ports and rapidly performing keystrokes like a musician playing a well-rehearsed symphony.

  When he had broken through the first firewall, Kenny put on some dark goggles along with a pair of cyberkinetic gloves. He patched them into his laptop without even looking. Moments later, three dimensional images and endless green lines appeared before his eyes as he downloaded into the virtual file dimension. Icons and other data sources danced all around him as he stared with wide-eyed wonderment at a three dimensional world-wide web. Using quick and precise hand movements, Kenny was able to open up virtual files, press the dancing icons and scroll through stacks of virtual data logs nearly instantaneously. He pressed a few more keys on his keyboard, along with some virtual buttons and started streaming several gigabytes of his own information into the system in order mask what he was doing.

  Kenny smiled and giggled to himself as he watched hundreds of words and images streaming into the system’s files and overloading them while he thought, “Sorry, Wallace… I only agreed to work with your little group so I could access all these wonderful media viruses ya’ all created. All that shit I helped you encode to tell the people about the need to shut down The Hydroplantations and start up a bunch of small, independently owned, organic farms…well, I never really believed in your cause. I like my Zoppy’s Chili too much there, buddy…and I could give a shit less who grows my lunch for me. All that stuff I helped you program, so that you could inform the people about all that government corruption, is now going to be corrupting this security program for me in about one, two, three more seconds… and there we go…”