The Society's Demon

by Matthew Lloyd

  Jonas addressed the sloping dashboard in front of him. “Is this safe?”

  “My technology is quantum based,” ANI answered without pause. “Even in the event of a malfunction, which is almost impossible, I will remain in control of all systems long enough to carry out safety measures, ensuring no loss of life nor physical harm to the passengers, and no damage to Quantum Society systems.”

  “How is that possible?” Jonas asked frowning. “I’ve seen computers break.” That was half a lie. He had seen a mobile phone crash and shut off before after he had dropped it, but not a computer, though he assumed they were the same thing. “When they go, they go. What makes you so different?”

  “I’d like to get going sometime this millennium,” Nico said, rolling his eyes.

  “I’m not going anywhere until she explains why this won’t kill me,” Jonas told him.

  ANI answered his question. “I am gifted with the power of foresight, as are humans,” ANI explained. “However, my brain can calculate the probabilities of future events at speeds unequalled by the human brain.”

  “So, you can tell the future?”

  “To a degree,” ANI agreed.

  Jonas relaxed into his chair. He looked over at Nico and even he seemed interested now, no longer impatient. “If that’s true, then what future do you see for me?”

  Again, with barely a pause ANI spoke. “There is a ninety-nine percent chance you will remain in this vehicle and accompany Nico to Prosperity.”

  Jonas exchanged a glance with Nico. “How could you know that?” Even Jonas wasn’t that sure. The longer the conversation went on, the more comfortable he became, but he still wasn’t certain of his future, at least not ninety-nine percent certain. “I’m not even sure what I’m going to do.”

  “The human brain is clouded by emotion,” ANI continued. “You are experiencing fear, doubt, and anxiety, and these survival mechanisms limit your ability to think unhindered. I am limited by no such feelings.”

  “That makes sense,” Jonas said, nodding. “So basically, you see what’s in front of you, like the clues, and piece them all together until you get the most likely future event?”

  Once again, ANI sounded happy with his question. “You are an observant child. That is correct.”

  “I think she likes you,” Nico whispered, raising an eyebrow.

  “Oh come on,” Jonas said scowling. “She’s a computer, not a teenage girl!”

  Nico shrugged, holding up his palms. “Just saying. There’s no need to get all embarrassed…”

  Jonas shot Nico a look. “I’m not embarrassed. I just don’t think it’s possible for computers to have feelings. She even said so herself.”

  ANI interrupted, saying, “But despite that, you still refer to me as a ‘she’ and not an ‘it’. As if I were human…”

  The two boys looked at each other. “She does have a point,” Nico said. “We do.”

  “Well, that’s what tends to happen when you give a machine a girl’s name,” Jonas explained. “I remember once, there was this guy in Sohalo who used to call his bicycle Rita until it got stolen. He kept telling me how he missed ‘her’, and how if he found out who’d taken ‘her’ he’d teach them a lesson.”

  “How interesting,” ANI said. “I hadn’t considered that factor when seeking to explain this phenomenon in humans.”

  “Thanks,” Jonas said slowly. “I’m glad I could help.”

  “I’d like to discuss this matter further with you if that’s possible?”

  Jonas shrugged; surprised at the interest ANI was showing him. “Well, yeah…maybe…” Jonas settled back into his seat, deep in thought. Was this genuine interest? Did she really want to talk, or was she merely attempting to trick him into trusting her?

  “Are you now comfortable enough to apply your seatbelt?” ANI asked, after a pause.

  “ANI,” Nico interrupted, “I can’t take this place for much longer. Let’s get going to Prosperity.”

  “Wait, I want you to promise me something, ANI,” Jonas told her.

  “What are you playing at?” Nico asked. Jonas shushed him with a hand.

  “You know that to break a promise, especially to a human, would make you a liar.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then,” Jonas told her, “I want you to promise me that you’ll bring me back to Sohalo whenever I choose and that you won’t force me to do anything I don’t want to do.”

  “Very clever,” Nico said. “I wish I’d thought of that.”

  ANI said, “I promise that you will have complete control over your destiny and that I will not force you to do anything you do not wish to do.”

  “Now, I’m ready to go.” Jonas relaxed into the chair. He stuck out his hand and waved it over the glass panel between their seats. The screen flickered into life and he sought out the seatbelt symbol. “And please…try not to strangle me!” he said, half joking, but also terrified of the idea. He tapped the screen then watched as the seatbelt snaked out of the seat and across his body. Once the seatbelt had secured itself to the seat, Jonas tried to move and found that he could. It didn’t feel like a rope, or a cable trapping him in place—he knew what that felt like—this was just a seatbelt.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” ANI answered. She sounded amused. He made a mental note to himself then, promising that he would explore further should this all turn out to be true. He wanted to see just how far the limits of this computer extended. Could she get angry? Looking at the seatbelt wrapping his body, that wasn’t something he wanted to consider just then.

  The car hummed with energy. It started as a keen whine that built into a steady, but low, and somehow pleasant hum. “We’ll be arriving at Prosperity Township in approximately twenty-three minutes,” ANI said. The car began to move. The road outside vanished, as the windscreen and side windows darkened. The Quantum Society Logo appeared in all its glory, in the center.

  “Would you like to watch a visual representation of The Quantum Society Vision during the journey?” asked ANI. “It will surely dispel any lingering doubts you might have about the intentions of my creators.”

  The light in the car dimmed. Jonas turned to Nico. “This isn’t going to brainwash me, is it?”

  Nico’s smile gleamed in the dim light. “Are you ever going to relax?” He offered his right hand to Jonas. “How about we shake hands on it?” he said, “gentleman’s agreement. You have my word that your brain will not be washed!”

  Jonas looked at the hand before him, then at Nico. Nico’s head danced from side to side, his eyebrows bouncing on his forehead. Jonas laughed, surprising himself. It felt good. He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed at something. He was feeling more relaxed. As much as he wanted to keep his guard up, it was hard not to feel safe for once. And he now couldn’t wait to set eyes on Prosperity. If it were anything like the rest of The Society’s creations, it would be brimming with technological surprises.

  He took Nico’s hand. “Alright, ANI, show me this…vision.”

  “As you wish, Jonas,” ANI said.

  The Society logo faded. It was soon replaced by a man who stood smiling in the center of the screen as if he were suspended in the air. Jonas recognized him. He was the scientist from the live showing of ANI’s awakening a few months earlier. He had a kind face, one that seemed more suited to a doctor than a scientist. His gray eyes sparkled with excitement as he spoke, the long silver hair draped over his shoulders, and the huge grey beard didn’t fit at all with his position. It was as if a homeless white person had found a lab coat and put it on to keep out the cold. Jonas found himself wanting to meet this man.

  The man spread his hands. “Welcome, everybody. I’m glad you have taken the time to let me show you what The Quantum Society has in store for Earth, and mankind. My name is Abraham Schmidt…”

  Chapter Nine

&nbs
p; Journey of Faith

  When the screen went blank, and the view of the world outside returned, the first thing Jonas saw was a mountain range. It stretched from East to West in front of them. At first glance, the rounded, sand-colored tops of the mountain range resembled a row of cupcakes, the mass of cloud above them like white frosting coating their tops. As ANI drove them closer, however, the mountaintops started to look more like great castles perched on hills. From the ground, a carpet of green covered the gently rising slopes. Then those slopes met thick pillars of rock that rose upwards sharply and then smoothed out again at their tops. Deep gouges and lines scored the sides of those pillars and made them look like aged faces looking out over the world below. He turned to Nico who was also staring at the mountains.

  Jonas recognized those mountains, he realized. “Are those the Magaliesberg Mountains?”

  Still staring through the windscreen, Nico answered, “Incredible, aren’t they? I remember when I saw them for the first time.” He turned and looked at Jonas. He was smiling. “I thought they looked just like sleeping lions.” He turned to look out of the window again. “I’ve been waiting to show someone else.”

  “Compared to Sohalo,” Jonas said, his voice low, “this is another planet.” The closest Jonas had ever come to mountains was when he climbed to the top of a derelict water tower near Sohalo. He went there sometimes to think. On clear days, when the sky was cloudless, he had seen this mountain range snaking across the horizon, north of Johannesburg. He had often wondered what it would be like to be up close to it. Surely, he had thought, it had to be better than Sohalo. Now, he was sure he had been right.

  Nico turned to him again. “What do you think they look like?”

  Jonas shrugged and laughed gently. “At first, I felt like I could reach out and pluck them out of the sky like cupcakes with white frosting on them.” The thought made both Jonas and Nico lick their lips, almost simultaneously.

  They both laughed at that. “Man,” said Nico. “You’re making me hungry.”

  Jonas turned back to the mountains. The clouds were breaking up, drifting off to the west, taking Jonas’ white frosting away. Now he could see why Nico thought they looked like sleeping lions. “Then I thought they looked more like castles sitting on top of hills.”

  Nico grunted. “Yeah, I suppose they do. That’s the beauty of mountains. They’re like clouds in a way,” he continued, his voice taking on a dreamy quality. “They can look like so many things, anything but mountains.”

  “An old man once told me that the human race was born in those mountains,” Jonas said as he gazed at the humps of the mountaintops, and tried to imagine how humans might live there.

  Nico shifted in his seat, leaning forward to get a better look. “That was one of the first things I learned in school, actually,” he said. “They weren’t like us, though, the first humans.”

  Jonas looked across at Nico. “No. They were bigger and stronger, and looked more like apes than humans.”

  Nico nodded and brought the thumb and index finger of his right hand together until they almost touched. “But their brains were tiny compared to ours. Then evolution worked its magic, and look where we are today,” he said gesturing to the car they sat in with upturned palms.

  “Yeah…,” said Jonas turning to look through the windscreen once more. Evolution, what was that? He’d never heard of it before, but it was clearly something important, something that had helped humanity achieve all that they had. He wouldn’t ask Nico what it meant, however. He still didn’t quite trust him enough to show any weakness. It was just a word, but if Nico had been using EDAI and it was as he said, then there would be many things that Nico knew that Jonas didn’t. He glanced sideways at Nico. He wanted to trust Nico and ANI. His instincts told him they were good. But a lifetime spent taking care of himself in a world full of crooks meant he needed more proof before he would completely relax around them.

  They began to slow down. Up ahead, along a narrow road with buildings on either side, real brick and stone buildings, hotels he supposed, he saw a flat and dark expanse. “Is that water?”

  Nico coughed and sat back in his chair again. “I think this is where you take over, ANI.”

  ANI’s voice filled the car, but it wasn’t sudden and jolting. It was a welcome sound, and Jonas found he was pleased to hear her again.

  She said, “Tomorrow, Nico, perhaps we can study the geography of South Africa, instead of astronomy.”

  “Oh come on, ANI,” Nico said groaning, “I’d much rather study the geography of Mars than Earth, you know that.”

  Jonas butted in before Nico could continue. He was eager to know exactly where they were, and where they were going. “Where are we, ANI?”

  “That expanse of water you see up ahead is the reservoir of the Hartbeespoort Dam. It collects water from Crocodile River here, which is then used by farmers to irrigate their fields.”

  “Is the water here clean?” Jonas asked. “The river by Sohalo is full of trash, and dead things. Wouldn’t it get washed upriver to this dam?”

  “That’s correct,” agreed ANI. “Much of the pollution does find its way here, but this is why the Society has chosen to locate Prosperity in close proximity to the dam. From Prosperity, I will be able to begin cleaning away the pollution buildup here, whilst simultaneously removing pollutants from further downriver. We have already shut down the nuclear power plant that once supplied power to this area, and replaced it with a safer, more effective power source.”

  Jonas scanned the area around them but saw no signs of anything that might produce power. “What could be more effective than a nuclear power plant?”

  “The new power source is still nuclear, but fission has been replaced by fusion,” ANI said.

  Again, Jonas didn’t understand, but by now, he’d noticed something else.

  “But where is Prosperity?” Jonas asked, seeing that they were almost at the reservoir now. He could see the tall white masts of the boats sitting in the harbor, and drifting by he saw the billowy shape of a parachute, a tiny figure clinging on as it soared above the water, pulled by a boat.

  “Ah,” said Nico, raising his thick, black eyebrows. “That’s where things get really interesting.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Prosperity is situated within a valley, located in the Magaliesberg Mountain range,” ANI said.

  “So, we’ll be taking a boat?” They’d reached the shore by now. The ground sloped away towards the water. On the water, he saw cruise boats drifting by, and people moving around onboard. There were several vessels nearby, sitting by the shore, ropes snaking from them to wrap around thick concrete posts. Jonas had never been on a boat before, and the only water available to him was thick with disease-ridden pollution and algae.

  The car slowed, and then stopped a few meters from the water’s edge.

  “We have no need of a boat,” ANI answered flatly.

  Jonas turned to look at Nico and frowned. “So how are we supposed to get to the mountains without crossing the water?” Nico waved his head from side to side, a grin forming on his face. That habit was getting a little annoying now, especially as Jonas sensed there was yet another surprise on the horizon.

  “This vehicle is multi-purpose,” ANI stated a moment later, “it’s capable of traversing most types of terrain, including mountainous regions, and is also capable of underwater travel.” The car began to edge forward towards the water.

  Jonas heard noises coming from somewhere inside the vehicle, whirring, clunking sounds like something was moving. “Wait a minute,” he said, his eyes glued to the surface of the water as it drew closer. “We’re going under the water?”

  “It’s perfectly safe,” ANI reassured him, her voice gentle. “Just sit back and enjoy the view.” The car sped up. Jonas pressed himself back into the seat as the water rushed up to meet th
em. “It’s only a three-minute journey to the entrance.”

  The car plunged into the water. Jonas expected it to bob up and down a moment, as a boat would, but it didn’t. Instead, the car hurtled forwards through the water and dove under the surface with a rush of bubbles.

  Darkness enveloped them for a moment. For several seconds, Jonas felt like he was floating in space. It was an eerie, but somehow pleasant sensation. He sat back in his chair, listening to the water move around the vehicle, mesmerized by its otherworldly quality. It was like nothing he had ever experienced before. With the river in Sohalo little more than a rubbish dump, and the sea hundreds of miles away, Jonas had never felt what it was to be underwater. It was as if he had just stepped through a portal onto another planet, a planet of liquid. The noises were different. Gone was the click of insects and hoot of birds. All he heard now were the bubbles, thousands of them rushing past. The only thing he had to compare to it was the sound of the rainwater during the rainy season, when it formed little streams that rushed through the grasslands, following the slope of the land towards the river.

  Nico whispered, “Strange isn’t it, the way everything goes quiet and dark.”

  “Magical,” said Jonas, his voice hushed.

  Then the headlights came on. And with the lights, Jonas’ ears seemed to reach another level. He heard the gentle thrum of a motor from the rear of the vehicle. It was constant and reassuring. A dull clunk, like metal striking metal, reverberated through the water, from the world outside the car, and stretched into the distance like it was made of elastic. At first, the lights blinded him, and he saw only golden beams of light cutting into a black fog, like torch beams in the dead of night. In a few more seconds, however, he was able to see their new world more clearly. He leaned toward the glass. Nobody spoke. There wasn’t much to look at outside the window, nor were there many fish. Still, those he did see captivated him. Sometimes, they hung in the water, their striped bodies like dead leaves floating by. Other times, they darted at the glass, little bullets that weaved and bobbed, and vanished in the blink of an eye. Jonas watched them, fascinated. He’d never seen fish in their natural habitat before. He’d only ever seen them swimming in the shallow buckets and aquariums of the market, waiting to be sold and eaten. In the market, staring down at them as they wriggled and squirmed rather than swam, they were unspectacular, drawing the eye for barely a moment, pathetic in their captivity. But here, they were graceful. They were masters of their underwater empire. He saw evidence of invasion however, human invasion. Objects lying awkwardly on the bottom of the reservoir, shear angles and edges, blocks and rectangles, covered in a carpet of green, which clearly didn’t belong. There were wheels, twisted bicycle frames that jutted up from the bottom like skeletal remains, and rubbish too, drifting through the water like corpses, lifeless but forever moving as they were pulled by the currents. It saddened Jonas to see that. Not only was Sohalo ruined, the land around it desolate as if touched by the corruption, but here too. Such a beautiful place, a place where humanity was born, yet even a place as hallowed as this wasn’t safe from the corrupt touch of people like Riian.