Vortex of Evil

by S D Taylor

  After their meal, Erin, Peter, Gaby and Doug made their way back towards the Yir-Lak compound where they were “staying.” After their most satisfying meal in two weeks, they were suddenly quiet as they contemplated what lay ahead. When they arrived back at the courtyard, the light was gradually declining, a reminder of how far north they were. Doug and Erin sat down at one of the tables as Peter and Gaby continued on towards their rooms. “See you tomorrow.” Peter turned as Erin said that and nodded. “Tomorrow.” Gaby reached back and took his hand.

  Doug pulled out a chair for Erin but before she sat down he said quietly, “want to go for a walk before it gets dark?”

  She looked up in surprise and held his glance for a minute. He didn’t say anything but she had an idea of what he wanted to talk about. But they had to find a way to communicate without being heard or seen by the monitors. Neither of them knew how it was done, but they were certain that any verbal communication could be tracked. Since she didn’t have Jelk’s ability with telepathy, she wondered what Doug had in mind. But she couldn’t ask. “Sure, let’s get a little more exercise and work off that big dinner.”

  Doug smiled at her B movie acting speech and she couldn’t help but laugh when she saw the look on his face. Being with this older version of Doug was equal parts comforting and strange. It was definitely the Doug she had come to know, but with enough subtle changes to make her sense how much history had taken place in his life and his relationship with her older version. She felt like she had skipped through volumes two through six of a seven part series. The characters had grown and changed, but she could only infer how that had happened or why or even what the result was. What did this Doug think about the Erin he had spent all those years with? Was their relationship still about passion and constant discovery, or was it more like a comfortable set of slippers that you love to wear but can do without if you misplace them under the sofa? From her chat with the older Erin, she was pretty sure they had kept the passion alive through everything.

  Doug saw her looking at him and sensed her conflicted feelings. “Don’t go falling in love with me. My heart belongs to someone else. And I am counting the seconds until I can be back with her, holding her in my arms.” He smiled as he said it and it completely disarmed Erin. She felt tears in her eyes as she hugged him.

  “She’s a lucky woman, Doug. I hope the day comes soon when you guys are back together.”

  Doug held her for a couple of seconds and then quietly said, “Let’s get going.”

  Erin nodded and they headed back to the trail they had taken back from the restaurant. But this time, they headed to the north. The trail headed through the open fields until it gradually descended towards the water where it turned east. The lush grass gradually thinned out near the water and was replaced by periodic tufts of grass and bushes separated by bare, dry ground. They walked in silence, looking at the high mountains to the north and east that were sparsely covered with pine trees. Next to a patch of open ground, Doug glanced around and then headed a little ways off the trail and sat down on the bare ground, motioning for Erin to do the same.

  She stared at him for a few seconds, then realized his new communication plan involved writing notes to each other in the bare, dry earth. Nature’s chalkboard. However good their surveillance, it was highly unlikely they had any way to read symbols scratched in dirt.

  Doug looked out at the blue water of the sound with the mountains in the distance. “It is a lovely day, don’t you think?” He winked at her, implying that another B movie speech was called for. Erin responded with a steady stream of meaningless banter. Doug reached down and rubbed his hand in the dirt to make a smooth place. He quickly wrote DARA TOLD ME ABOUT A PLAN. Erin nodded. WE MUST GO TO LOPFA. SOMEONE WILL MEET US THERE.

  Doug carefully erased his message space after each message. He looked expectantly at Erin. She took her finger and spelled, JELK TOLD ME THE SAME THING. DARA? YOU THOUGHTLINKED WITH DARA? She brushed away the writing, dusting off her hands as if washing away the thought of Dara. Doug smiled at the neat job she was doing.

  SHE CAME TO MY ROOM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. WE PRETENDED TO BE HAVING SEX.

  Erin stared at him in disbelief.

  YUCK! Was the only thing she wrote. Doug just shrugged and was clearly looking for more details of her encounter with Jelk.

  Erin continued. HE SAID WE WOULD KNOW THAT WE COULD TRUST THE PERSON WHO APPROACHED US.

  Doug looked up. He had a quizzical look as he wrote HOW? in the dirt. HOW WILL WE KNOW?

  Erin looked at him and shrugged. HE SAID WE WOULD JUST KNOW.

  Doug wiped away the letters and stared off into the distance as if trying to imagine how this scenario could play out. He had a strong suspicion that this whole thing was just another bizarre test that Dara had dreamed up to further torture them. But he wanted to believe that this unlikely turn of events could be real. It might be their only chance to break the iron grip that the Yir-Lak Command had over every aspect of this society. WE HAVE TO PLAY ALONG AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

  Erin nodded again. WHEN DO WE LEAVE? YESTERDAY JELK SAID WE SHOULD GO IN FOUR DAYS.

  THREE DAYS FROM NOW. OK? Erin nodded and Doug quickly wiped it away. He continue to stare into the distance but Erin had noticed that he was glancing quickly around in various directions, trying to see if there was anyone or anything that might be watching them. He reached over and pulled her towards him as if he was going to kiss her. He whispered in her ear, “Time to go back now, my love.”

  It took her a second to realize he was continuing to play a part and make their extended exchange appear to be just a brief romantic interlude. She kissed him on the cheek and they held hands as they walked back to the trail, keeping watch around them for anyone who might be nearby. They seemed to be alone.

  She wondered who watched Dara and Jelk, or if the surveillance was everywhere for everyone. They were halfway back to the compound when they saw a couple walking towards them on the trail, having an animated discussion. They passed by without looking at Doug or Erin, as if lost in their discussion. As soon as they were well past, Doug leaned over to Erin and said simply, “A real discussion would have paused as we passed.”

  Erin glanced back at the couple who were heading towards the sound. She thought how glad she was that they had carefully erased all their dirt writing. She wondered how the telepathy worked and why the monitors couldn’t intercept it. Doug saw her furrowed brow and smiled. “It is too bad we don’t speak Navaho. I hear it worked great in World War II.”

  “Too bad my older version didn’t teach you some Gaelic.”

  Doug smiled. “And how do you know she didn’t?”

  Erin looked at him skeptically. “Well then say something in Gaelic and dazzle me?”

  Doug stopped walking and turned to face her. “Is minic a bhris béal duine a shrón.”

  Erin laughed out loud. “Is that your philosophy of life? Your recent history with Dara doesn’t seem to bear that out.”

  “Well my Erin never told me exactly what it meant. Something about making your own trouble. What does it mean?”

  “It means, ‘Many a times a man’s mouth broke his nose.’ Good to remember next time you are sitting in a bar and people start talking about politics or sports.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind if we find any bars open around this place. She taught me a couple of phrases, but not enough words that I could carry on a conversation. It might have been useful to know about now. Never thought about being in place like this.”

  Erin smiled. “No problem. Next time you see your Erin, just say, ‘mo shíorghrá.’ That will impress her. Then be sure to kiss her.”

  Doug looked puzzled. “Mo shíorghrá?”

  “It means, ‘My eternal love.’ I thought that pretty well describes how you two feel about each other . . .” Erin realized by seeing Doug’s glance that she may have strayed into an emotional minefield where she didn’t belong. “Doug, sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”
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  He looked at her with a sad smile, then reached out and pulled her toward him and hugged her tightly. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “It’s ok, Erin. It is exactly how I feel about her. But hearing you say that felt like I was hearing her say it. And I don’t know when or if I will ever have that opportunity.” He clearly felt the sense of loss at that moment. As they stood there, hundreds of years in the future, his Erin was dead and buried.

  Erin kissed him on the cheek. “Then my version will have to do for now.” She wanted to try to lighten the mood. “Let’s get back to our rooms and get some sleep. We need to do some exploring tomorrow and we are both pretty exhausted.”

  Doug let go of her but took her hand and started back up the trail. “Thanks for that moment. Sorry I got weird on you. I try to keep my emotions under control so they don’t get in the way.”

  She squeezed his hand. “Don’t worry. If I let my emotions get in my way, I would always be stuck.”

  He smiled as they walked hand in hand back to the compound. Somewhere at that moment one of Yir-Lak monitoring stations was furiously trying to decipher words from a strange ancient language they had picked up on their visitor monitoring systems.

  Chapter 30

  Erin slept well and awoke to a bright but overcast day. She thought the TV weather people, if TV still existed, must have it easy in this future world since there didn’t seem to be any variation to the weather besides bright and overcast. The temperature seemed stuck around sixty four degrees and there was a light breeze. They controlled everything else so it was possible they had the weather under control as well.

  Erin found Doug sitting at one of the courtyard tables looking at a Vutonc, one of the portable views screens that could be rolled up or folded like a piece of paper. He glanced up as she sat down. “Good morning! How did you sleep?”

  “Not bad. The beds are surprisingly comfortable. It is weird when you get out of bed and it is only six inches above the floor.”

  Doug could relate to that. “These beds are designed for younger knees that I have. I guess if people don’t live past thirty six it’s less likely they have knee problems to worry about.”

  Erin sat at the table. “What are you doing? Checking out the news?”

  “There isn’t any news on this thing. I was checking out maps and brochures to find a place to go for a little outing. I thought a journey down the peninsula to the south would be nice.” Lopfa was at the tip of what was formerly called the Kenai Peninsula. Erin wondered if there were any bears around these days. Her friend who lived in Alaska told stories about seeing bears.

  “That should be a good trip. As long as we are stuck here, we might as well see the sights.” Erin wondered how long she could keep up the appropriate level of meaningless banter for those listening in. But she realized she didn’t have to be that careful for most of what she might say to Doug. As long as she didn’t give away their plans, regular conversation wouldn’t hurt. And there were a few personal things she wanted to ask him.

  “So how do we travel? Is it all by foot, or can we hitch a ride on some form of transportation?”

  “We can go by boat or ‘rail’ but they don’t really use rails anymore. The cars are held up and controlled by magnetism. It isn’t too fast, but we can see the landscape on the way.”

  “Do they have passenger cars anymore? I haven’t seen any.”

  “Everyone walks or takes the people movers that go down the main arteries. They run continuously according to this brochure says and they are always free to citizens of Transarctica and guests.” Doug had tried the people movers the first week he arrived. He had scouted the city of Selenton pretty thoroughly to see if there was an escape path for him to follow. In reality, he could “escape” any way he wanted at any time, but he couldn’t get away from the electronic surveillance. He was sure it was in the nanobots they had swallowed. Somehow those had connected him to the rest of the “hive” and there was no way to sever that connection. At least no way he knew about. He was sure that even in this weird controlled future world there must be dissident forces that didn’t want to be watched every minute and who objected to dying at age thirty six. He had just made up his mind to go find them when Dara had come to see him one night.

  He was asleep in bed in his Yir-Lak room when he felt someone sit down at the foot of the bed. He immediately rolled to the side and came up ready for action but then saw in the dim light that is was Dara, his tormentor, sitting at the foot of his bed. Her blond hair was loosely framing her face and she was wearing a lightweight robe that appeared to be made from silk or whatever they had developed to replace silk in the future. She looked him in the eye and held up one finger to her lips. Doug felt a sudden and overwhelming sense of dread at what he expected to happen next. Dara patting the bed next to her as a sign for him to sit down did nothing to ease his concern. But the number of stunpulses he had received had convinced him that he should pick his fights carefully. He sat down and immediately could smell her perfume. He had to admit Dara was never predictable but this seemed to be beyond any scenario he could have imagined. He had never thought about her as attractive. She was just the embodiment of evil and appearing to him like this, all softness, silk and perfume right there in his bed in the middle of the night sent his warning systems into high gear. He was on edge as he sat down next to her waiting for the next move. He sensed this might be his chance to strangle her since he had wanted to do that from the moment that she and Jelk had captured him. This was the closest he had gotten to her without that damn stunpulse hitting him. But he waited. He was too curious to end this encounter without more details about what was really happening. And it would seem wrong for him to suddenly attack her as she sat there on his bed. At least by his moral code.

  Doug turned and faced her, but as he started to say something she reached out and touched his lips gently. He immediately felt a mild electric current, a tingle that passed from her finger into his lips. “Can you hear me, Doug? Don’t say anything. Just nod.” He nodded, but couldn’t understand how he heard her without her lips moving.

  “You are hearing my thoughts and I will be able to hear yours to some extent. We have to communicate this way so they can’t hear what we are saying.” She gently took his hand in hers. He was surprised by how small her hand seemed compared to his.

  Doug wondered how many of his thoughts she would be able to hear. He wondered if she could sense his dread. Or feel his urge to choke her.

  “Yes, I can hear you, Doug. I know what you think of me. Even without this mind link. I have terrorized and abused you because that is my job.”

  Doug paused at that thought. “You are good at your job.”

  “Thank you. I think that was a compliment coming from someone who has done a few bad things to people himself.”

  Doug had to admit that Dara could always cut right to the chase. He tried to reciprocate.

  “Are you here for what I think you are here for? You look all sexy and appealing and are wearing that wonderful perfume. Almost seems like you have other things in mind than interrogating me.”

  “And that is what they must think. It is ok if I wanted to have sex with one of the prisoners. Nobody in this world would think twice about that. But any unexpected discussions would be noticed immediately.”

  “So we can communicate like this as long as they think we are having sex.”

  “As long as we have a plausible reason to be in close proximity for a few minutes.”

  Doug looked at her skeptically for the “few minutes” comment. She picked up his thoughts quickly. “Men haven’t changed that much in the past three hundred years.”

  Doug hadn’t expected a sense of humor from Dara. Or anything approximating her current appearance or this situation for that matter. But he was totally unprepared for the thoughts she sent his way next.

  “I don’t want to die next year, Doug. There are a lot of us who feel the same way and we think we may have found a way to escape.
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  Doug’s thoughts betrayed him. She responded. “I know you think this is another of my mind games, but I assure you it isn’t. My husband was killed by this culture two years ago. Hold both my hands and I will let you see some images of our life together.”

  Doug looked up at her in surprise. It took him a few seconds but then he took her two small, soft hands in his. Images started flooding his consciousness. He could recognize the landscape around Selenton. He saw a dark haired man running through the grass with the camera following him. He realized the “camera” was Dara’s view looking at each scene. The dark haired man turned towards her, smiling and ran to hug her. He looked fit and had a military bearing. The scene changed and they were in a house or apartment. It was furnished with the strange and sparse furniture similar to the rooms at the compound. There were two small children, both boys, running around playing with the man and a small puppy that he was holding. Then there was a scene of the man looking extremely sad with tears streaming down his cheeks. He said goodbye and turned away, escorted by two uniformed men into a doorway. Then the scenes ended.

  Doug looked up and saw tears running down Dara’s face. Instinctively he put his arms around her and held her close as she cried quietly. He thought to himself that if this was a game, she was playing it well. He completely forgot his plan to strangle her.

  “It isn’t a game, Doug. Everything I have told you is real. Now lay down on the bed.”

  Doug lay down and Dara joined him. Her thoughts were now instructions. “When we are done communicating, we are going to hug and kiss for a couple of minutes and then you are going to loudly say ‘I just can’t do this’ and I am going to stun you mildly, get up and leave. Ok?”