by Simon Royle
My heart racing, I searched for other signs but there were none. That was it. I looked down the beach and walked out of the line of the jungle to see more clearly. It was empty. I turned back to the house, walking and then running. Back up to the steps through the open doors. It was the same as I’d left it moments ago. No. No. No. Think. Do not panic. Think. Call Sir Thomas. I went to the sleeper side table and grabbed the Devstick that was lying there. Turning it on and thumbing for contacts. 10:35am.
“Get me Sir Thomas!”
The Devstick’s screen changed to the image of Sir Thomas sitting by his desk and I noticed that I had a message from him received at 10:31am. While waiting for him to pick up I opened the message.
Jonah,
Good morning. Hope you’re feeling all right after all that whisky we consumed last night. I’m off traveling on official business for a few days. Attached you’ll find a file with images and archive footage of me when I was younger. Please discuss with Harpers whether they can handle the new launch date. I expect they’ll need at least a week to take care of things but at least they can get the packing done in advance. Good luck with getting the memoir finished – at least you won’t have any distractions to tempt you away from your duty. Mariko sends her love, says she’s fine and will see you as soon as you’ve done what you have to do.
My Honour is my Loyalty.
Your Uncle,
TBO
Cancel request.
I sat on the sleeper. Oh fuck. What have I done?
Chapter 32
Just When I Needed You Most
Australasia Levtube approaching Melbourne Air and Lev port
Thursday 6 February 2110, 3:30pm +10 UTC
It took an hour and fifteen minutes to go from Sisik to Melbourne with stops at Changi, Darwin and Sydney on the way. I’d booked a direct Lev and I was lucky as all the seats were taken. I felt strange that normal life was going on around me. People were traveling to their contributions, taking vacs, and just doing what people do. I moved among them with my relentless thoughts, and acted normal while my life was in chaos.
I’d achieved what I had set out to achieve. I was in the Hawks, but Sir Thomas had outsmarted me or at least upped the stakes. I didn’t know if he was setting me up, or if he just wanted insurance, but either way he had outplayed me. In the time that Mariko had been gone, I had tried to keep my routine. I needed to be strong to get her back and so I ran where we had run and ate what we had eaten. I was strong. I was a wreck. I had no choice.
If before I had been playing a high level game, Sir Thomas taking Mariko had just made it very personal and very real. Until then it was all talk. Even what Gabriel had told me hadn’t really sunk in. I suppose it was too long ago and somewhat removed from me. It was almost as if I had an evil image of Sir Thomas that hadn’t meshed with my reality of him. But now the image and the reality had become one, and I understood just what an evil sick fuck he really was. I also knew now that I was capable of killing. He had taught me that.
I hadn’t been stopped yet, so I could only assume he hadn’t put Mariko through Truth Treatment or had Cochran probe her mind. I wondered about that. It could be that he had put Mariko through Truth Treatment and was having me followed to see who else I could lead him to.
I wanted more than ever to get in touch with Gabriel. I was sure that I was under very tight surveillance, tagged and my every move analyzed. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that Sir Thomas didn’t already know of my association with Gabriel, and that my killing someone was just his way of getting rid of me, but it didn’t really matter. If I sent any strange messages anywhere I was sure they would be traced. So that ruled out getting in touch with Gabriel.
For the past five and half days I’d written practically non-stop and slept four hours a day. This morning I’d fired off the memoir manuscript to Harpers with instructions that they had to get it together for February the 15th no matter what. I copied Sir Thomas on the message and told them that I was traveling and would be unavailable. I’d done what I could but I had a feeling I wouldn’t be winning any Pulitzers for the writing.
The final debate papers for the Tag Popvote were done. There was the fake ‘rape’ position that Annika would not use, but that I would give to Sir Thomas as her debating position. There was also the real paper for Sir Thomas or his nominees to use in their position together with counter-arguments against the rape case. Finally, there was the real paper for Annika’s lawyers to present once I resigned and joined Sir Thomas. I had all of these on my Devstick but I wondered if I would show them or continue with Annika. It would mean Mariko’s death if Sir Thomas believed I had betrayed him. At the least he would think me incompetent and that could get us both killed just as quickly. Or should I betray Annika? Would Mariko even be with me if I managed to save her life under those circumstances? I knew the answer to that and I didn’t like it. I banished the question from my mind.
The Lev decelerated swiftly. I shook myself from my thoughts and looked around. There wasn’t a face I recognized but then I wouldn’t. The Lev doors opened and we all filed out, those nearest the doors rushing to get to the walky ahead of the others. Take it easy, I thought, there’s nothing so important that a few extra secs will hurt. Move slower, enjoy life. What, like you’re enjoying life? Are you enjoying this ever-present panic in your gut? Taking pills to sleep and living on fumes?
I waited until I got on the walky and then took out my Devstick to find the way to the Hilton on the Park. Being in the Australia Geographic always made me feel as if I had gone back in time. Australia had resisted population growth and high-rises with equal ferocity. Boasting a population of forty million, it was the least densely populated developed Geographic on Earth.
I came out of the Lev port and headed over to the taxi rank. As I reached the railings that zigzagged back and forth to control the queue, a black guy wearing a bush hat cut in front me. The guy behind shouted, “Hey mate, there’s a queue back here.” But the black guy just ignored him and looked forward.
He was shorter than me and I felt angry that he’d jumped in front but I kept my tongue. No point getting in a row and making news of myself. He was also very well muscled with broad shoulders. I wasn’t sure that I could beat him even with the moves that Mariko had taught me. I shook my head. A week ago I had never entertained a violent thought against another human, and here I was contemplating attacking this guy for jumping ahead of me in a queue.
The taxis were arriving quickly and regularly, and soon I was at the open end of the railing next to the Travway. A fat woman wearing a yellow jacket with STAFF written across its front and back in big black letters, pointed at the black guy in front of me and at a taxi at the front of the queue.
Without looking at me the big black guy in front of me said, “Gabriel sent me to get you. Don’t ask questions. Follow me and stay under the cover of the taxi rank. Follow me now.”
He started walking away and, shocked as I was, I followed him. He got in the taxi, leaving the door open, and I climbed in headfirst after him. I heard him say something to the Dev in the cab but didn’t catch what it was.
“You got a Devstick on you?”
“Yes.”
“Give it ‘ere, lie low in the seat and strip off,” he said in a low voice, smiling. I blew out my cheeks in a sigh and rolled my eyes. Does everybody I meet have to see me strip? I undressed, lying low in the seat, and as I did so, he picked up my discarded outers and inners and tossed them in a bag. The taxi had pulled out of the airport. All I could see from my position were the lights lining the Travway. Naked as the day I was born, I turned to him, spreading my hands.
He raised a finger to his lips and shook his head. Then he reached into a backpack that I hadn’t noticed and pulled out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt with an ‘I’ a big heart and ‘Pussy’ written on it. I put them on, but when I started to rise from my low position he shook his head again. He smiled, his huge white teeth gleaming in the dark of his face, indica
ting with his hands that I should lower my head. I did. I felt his hands smoothing over the tops of my head, down around my ears and then around my neck. He gave me a thumbs-up and pulled a large floppy white hat out of the backpack and jammed it on my head. He patted his hand, palm downwards, to indicate I should lay low. I lay and watched the travlights and blue sky go by.
Wondering if this was an elaborate ruse by my uncle, I decided I was giving him too much credit, but also wondered why he would go to all of this trouble. With Mariko under his control, he could simply ask me and I’d tell him what I knew. Or would I? I didn’t know the answer to that and didn’t really want to. I was cramped, squatting on the floor of the cab below window level, but I stayed where I was. Suddenly the taxi picked up pace and I felt myself pushed against the back edge of the back seat.
About five mins later, we slowed. All I saw was a ceiling and then lights on a wall as we turned and then descended. I knew this because I was thrust forward sharply against the back of the seat in front of me. And then we stopped and the doors opened. I looked at my companion but he was already climbing out of the cab so I followed suit. The cab turned around and pulled out of what I now could see what an underground parking lot.
The black guy walked over to a large tanker. Written in gold on the white tank was, ‘Vanishing Point Vineyards’. He continued to the rear of the tanker, and pulled a handle while pushing another button. The whole rear end of the tanker swung free. He smiled at me and shifted his eyes to the inside of the tank and then raised his eyebrows at me.
I walked around him and looked inside. It had a compartment built into its mid section about two-thirds inside the tank. The compartment had another small door in that with a big round handle set in it. I jumped in and went to the door. I turned the circular handle until the door swung free and then, once sitting inside what was probably roomy enough for cramped four adults, I closed the door and locked it shut again.
I was now inside a tin box, inside another tin box, and being driven somewhere. I should count to keep track of the time, I thought, and began counting. Wait a minute, this is pointless. You have no control over where you are going or what time it will take to get there. So what is the point of knowing the time? Right, think of something else. Mariko. Images of her. At the Nineveh sitting across from me in that pool. In the book shop in Orchard. On the beach in Sisik. Naked under me on the floor in the house. I’ve got to get you out of this babe, and I will. Or die trying. So this is why people believe in God? So they can have someone to ask to help save someone they love.
I slid forward on the seat. We’d stopped. I heard three raps on the tank. Opening the door of the compartment, the rear of the tanker was already open and I could see we were in some kind of building.
I jumped out of the tanker and the black guy hugged me. “Oh mate, it’s so good to see you. When we heard Gabe’s bro’ was still alive, we were all so happy for him and now to meet you. Just a beauty, mate. Eh, let me look at you.” With this he pushed me away from him with his hands clasping my shoulders. I realized with his push just how strong he was. “You look like yer old man,” he said, smiling even broader. I smiled back, it was impossible not to, his face was so warm.
“My name’s Maloo, mate. It means ‘Thunder’ in English, but you can call me me Loo if you wants.”
I waied him. And he grabbed me again. “No mate, no wais, just hugs. I wanna feel you.” I smiled and he threw a massive arm around my neck and pulled me towards a huge stack of barrels. There was a Porsche Diablo and a couple of white BMW Airbikes that looked very close to what UNPOL use but without the lights and sirens.
Maloo did something on his Devstick and the stack of barrels moved across the floor of the warehouse. Underneath them, in the floor, a metal plate slid sideways. Steps led down into a passage. Maloo pushed me in front of him and I went down the steps. It was a thin passage, just wide and tall enough to walk slightly hunched over. If another person came the other way, you’d have to turn back or climb over each other.
There was a single line of strip lights leading the way around a curve up ahead. The curve kept going and the tunnel looked the same.
“About two hundred and fifty meters down, we’ll come to another set of steps but there’s a fork up ahead. Take the left fork. OK?”
His voice echoed in the tunnel. The only other sound was our footsteps on the concrete floor. I took the fork and, after walking another fifty meters, saw the steps. I went up these and came to another door which opened just as I approached the top of the stairs. Standing in the light of the doorframe was Gabriel. I recognized his shape.
He smiled and held his arms out wide. I realized in that instant how alone and lost I had been these past few days. A hard lump hit the bottom of my throat and my eyes teared. We hugged and I held him tight. I sniffed and breathed out loud still hugging him tightly.
“He’s got Mariko.”
“I know. I read the message he sent you. It’s going to be OK, my brother We’re going to get her back.” He squeezed me hard and then with his arm around my shoulder led me into the room, which was another warehouse but this one was all flying vehicles and a rubber dinghy on a motorized trailer.
“Come on. There’s someone I want you to meet, and we have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time, as usual. But let’s get to the house and we can talk there.”
We crossed the warehouse and this time a workbench moved sideways and a flight of stairs appeared. It was obvious that this wasn’t set up as a temporary place.
“Is this where you've been living?” I asked Gabriel as we walked down the flight of stairs which were wide enough to fit both of us side by side.
“Yes. I’ve lived here for about twenty years. I trav a lot but always under assumed identities. I’ve never used my real identity. I knew that Sir Thomas was just waiting and that would have been the end of me.”
We came to a set of doors that looked like they were sealed with fat black rubber-like bands on either side of them. Inside was a four-seated pod.
“You’ve got your own Lev tube!” I exclaimed. I had never heard of anyone having a private Lev tube, but of course buildings had them.
“Yes, the house is about ten kiloms away and this is the quickest and most discreet way of getting there.”
We all took a seat and with a command to his Devstick, Gabriel shut the doors. We took off fast – I slid over on the seat to Maloo who was sitting next to me. He laughed.
“Not quite as smooth as commercial Levs but it’s safe. Don’t worry about that,” Gabriel said this and I realized he’d braced himself against the sides of the pod, as had Maloo. I nodded and smiled at my brother. It was great to see him. Just when I needed him most.
The Lev rapidly decelerated but I was ready and braced for it, coming to a stop with a thump against something that gave. We rocked back a bit until locking into place. The doors opened and there was another small platform with concrete steps leading upwards. I followed Gabriel out and we went up the steps to a door at the top.
The door opened into a small room with another door. When Gabriel opened that one inwards, I saw that it had various cleaning equipment hanging off it and then he opened another door and I realized the access to the Lev was hidden in a cleaning equipment storage closet. What a life he must have had to live like this, I thought.
The cleaning closet emptied us out onto a wooden floor passageway with white doors at both ends. Gabriel walked to the one on the left and opened it to a beautiful sunny room that looked out over dunes to the ocean below. I followed him into the room and saw, on two matching white sofas, Annika Bardsdale and a woman I recognized as Martine Shorne, sitting opposite each other with a bottle of wine between them. Annika had been saying something but when she saw me, she stopped and rose from the sofa. I smiled at her and she walked over and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She held the back of my head and looked into my eyes.
“Gabriel told me about what’s happened to Mariko. I’m so
sorry, but you must know that we’ll do everything in our power to bring her home safely.”
I smiled back at her, returning her hug. “Thanks. I know.”
Martine stood up and came over to us. She waied and Gabriel walked to her side, putting his arm around her.
“Mark, this is Martine, or Marty as she likes to be called. She’s the love of my life.” When he said this she looked up at him and with a hand steered his head so that she could kiss his cheek.
I stepped over to her and held my arms out. “That makes you my sister, Marty.” She smiled and hugged me. I was struck by how beautiful she was compared to the image that UNPOL had issued of her. We stopped hugging and Marty sat down on the sofa with Gabriel. I sat on the opposite one with Annika on one side and Maloo on the other side of me.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t move sooner to bring this meeting around but we needed you away from the heavy surveillance you were under. Sir Thomas is watching you like a Hawk, if you’ll forgive the pun, and we couldn’t move. When I saw that you were meeting Annika in Melbourne I thought it better just to wait. This is home ground. We have a lot of resources we can call upon here and practically none up in New Singapore. Anyway I’m sorry, this last week must have been hell for you.”
“Don’t apologize. I understand. And yes, it’s been rough. What about this meeting though, won’t UNPOL have picked up on my disappearance?”
Gabriel poured me a glass of wine. I took a gulp to wash away the lump in my throat. He smiled at me, like he knew what I was thinking.