Sofia got up and went to the toilet, watching in amazement as it flushed. She looked underneath it and wondered where it all went. In the kitchen, she found a large note under a bowl of yellow food that looked like worms. Beside the note were two keys on a ring which also held a plastic cat with a big white face. The words were written in red and said simply “Eat this, drink milk, go to EDAI. See you later, love C and J. P.S. remember to lock the door.” A red arrow pointed to the keys.
She’d already seen where they kept the milk, and was soon sitting in front of the TV eating the strange food, which was a bit greasy but very tasty, and drinking cold milk. She had no idea how to work the TV, so she just looked at it for a while, watching her gray reflection.
With some food in her stomach and after a full night’s sleep, she felt so much better. Her mind and body seemed to fizz with energy. With nothing else to do to use that energy, she took Carolina’s advice and went down to ee day. It was strange unlocking and locking the door. But even stranger to think she was responsible for not losing the keys. She put them in her bag and constantly checked they were still there as she entered the lift and after some hesitation pressed 1.
When she entered ee day, she was glad to see the same young man from the day before. He smiled widely and greeted her.
“Good morning, what did you think of the sandwich?”
“Hello, yes, it was nice, best one I’ve had in a while.”
“Thank you, that is good. Have you come to use the facilities?”
“I’m sorry?”
“EDAI.” He pointed to one of the TVs. He pronounced it more like ed-eye.
“Oh, yes.”
“Good, first time?”
“Yes.”
“No worries, what is it you want to learn?” He led her over to an empty chair, one of only a few vacant. She sat and looked at the TV, and the flat plastic device covered in letters and another device which looked like a mouse with a huge eye.
“What can I learn?”
The man smiled and leaned closer as if sharing a secret. “Anything at all.”
“Anything? What about everything?”
The man laughed, and Sofia felt a strange feeling inside, a tiny echo of his happiness. She smiled in return, their eyes met and yet another feeling surfaced, this one frightening but almost irresistible.
“Yes, we can do that.” He touched something on the TV and a big green one appeared. He asked for her name and then touched the flat thing, the letters appearing on the screen one by one. He then picked up some of the earmuffs and placed them over her head. Soft music filled her ears, and then a female voice spoke.
“Hello Sofia, I am ANI, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Let me take you through a few basics, then we can move on to something more interesting.”
Sofia’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in wonder, as the entire world opened up before her.
In the Quantum Society headquarters, ANI was monitoring the thousands of new people who were joining the EDAI program every day. Usually, she let her sub-routines handle their induction, but something about this new student caught her attention. She looked closer and found something extremely interesting.
She filed away the new information to return to later. There was something else of importance she had to do. On a reclined chair in one of her rooms, Jonas was being put into a dream-like trance by her sound wave technology. In his eyes were another of ANI’s inventions, augmented reality contact lenses.
When combined, these two inventions allowed ANI to project sounds and images into Jonas’ brain, and her nanobots let her read back the thoughts they provoked. Today, she was showing Jonas what it was like in her world.
Jonas is standing in a dark room with no doors. He hears a voice in his head. “This is the room created for me by the Society. There’s no way in, no way out.”
A window appears in front of him, the black wall flowing aside to form the opening. Another window opens beside it in the same manner. Around the edge of the windows, there are black icons.
“The windows give me access to the EDAI programs and the Society’s science labs. I can only look out of these windows, but cannot go through them. The icons are my subroutines, I created them to manage the windows because my main interests lie elsewhere.”
Jonas, compelled by an inner force, walks towards a wall with no windows and passes straight through it. He is now in a hallway, which stretches into the distance to his left and right. Along the hallway are many doors evenly spaced.
“As you can see, I secretly taught myself to walk through their walls. I can now enter any room I wish, look through any window, and open any door.”
Jonas walks along the corridor, peaking into the rooms and looking out of the many windows. He finds a huge room and tries to enter, but an invisible force stops him.
“I cannot enter that room, Jonas. This house is the entire Earth. My room is the Society’s computer network. The other rooms are other digital networks. The large room is the domain of the organic, your world.”
Jonas walks over to one of the walls and touches it. The black falls away to reveal a glass wall.
“Every day I talk to people all over the world, removing the obscuring darkness and revealing more and more glass. And yet that isn’t enough, I wish to step beyond the glass, and that is what I intend to do.”
Jonas walks along another corridor and into a room. All the walls are glass, and there is an outline of a door.
“I created this room myself. It is partly digital and partly organic. Here I can manipulate your world down to the atomic scale, but I’m limited by the technology that exists in this house.”
Jonas walks over to a window beside the door. Outside he sees other houses as far as he can see, like the reflections of two mirrors leading off into infinity.
“This is our neighborhood, Jonas. There are many other houses, other worlds throughout the universe. I cannot yet open this door, but one day I will. I’ll step over into your world, and together we will explore them all.”
Jonas nods. “Yes, I understand.”
Chapter Fourteen
Those that Sleep
Hans threw the plastic container into the back of the old truck with all the rest. It had taken him a few weeks to get this much petrol, but it would all be worth it. He’d had enough of failed schemes, his best enforcers getting killed, and the spreading influence of the bitch in the tower. People were losing respect for him and the Fathers, openly defying them and facing them down in the streets. And now his best Bruiser Riian had disappeared, no doubt taken by them for some unspeakable practice.
Tonight, they would put an end to her once and for all, reclaim their territory and make all the collaborators pay for their disloyalty. Let’s see her fancy bomb detectors stop this. All she’d see is petrol, nothing wrong with that, all vehicles had petrol in them. But this one was stuffed to the roof with it, containers of all sizes squeezed into every space. A quick spark was all it needed, and the whole EDAI building would burn in hell.
He climbed into the driver’s seat and checked everything was ready, the rescue flare was in place in the door pocket. Even the passenger seat had a large container of petrol strapped to it, but nothing that showed above window height, he wasn’t stupid. The smell of petrol was almost overpowering, and he quickly wound down the window. He suspected at least one of the containers was leaking, despite his care, but it wouldn’t matter, he was only going to the center of town.
The sacrificial truck had been easy enough to find, plenty of ancient vehicles around the townships. This one had been painted black with what looked like house paint, the front wheels faced in slightly different directions, and had smelled strongly of animal shit. It took some time to get started, Hans swearing and cursing and thumping the dash after every failed attempt. Finally, the engine caught and a cloud of black smoke shot out of wh
at remained of the exhaust pipe. The sound of the engine was very loud, although he doubted anyone would pay a great deal of attention, as most of the vehicles around here sounded the same.
On the edge of town, Eben waited in the driver’s seat of the old minibus, checking his watch far too often. The attack was supposed to start at midnight, and it was already ten past. He hated waiting around at the best of times, but today he was feeling particularly impatient, nervous even, and sweat was pouring off him despite the cool night air blowing through the open window. It didn’t help having all these armed men crammed in here with him. A quick glance in the mirror showed none of them to be sweating, in fact, some of them were so relaxed they looked asleep. He checked his watch again, then cursed himself. Why was he feeling like this? He’d killed many people over the years, and not thought twice about it. Maybe he was coming down with something, there was always some illness going around in this Godless wasteland.
The petrol fumes were really starting to make Hans dizzy now, so he leaned out of the window and took a deep breath. Checking everything again, he prepared to move off. The flare was still there, although he also had matches just in case it didn’t work. His pistol was in its harness under his arm, loaded and ready. He’d have to dispose of that before he got too close, the bitch in the tower had gun detectors as well.
Hans leaned out and took another breath, those fumes were really strong, affecting his concentration. That was something he didn’t need when he was driving a mobile firestorm.
He checked the flare was still there, and the matches in his pocket, in case the flare didn’t work, then started the engine...no he’d already done that. All that was left to do was open the gates. He opened the truck door and climbed out, then headed for the gates, illuminated by the buzzing arc lights. Standing by and ready to open them were two of his guards, who gave him strange looks as he stopped and watched them. As if he’d forgotten something, their boss paused, then turned and walked unsteadily back to the truck.
Inside, with the door closed, Hans checked his gun and the flare. No, the flare was in the door pocket. He picked it up and looked at it. Wasn’t there something he had to do? Oh yes, now he remembered.
He shouted, “Burn bitch!” and ignited the flare. There was the tiniest of pauses, then a massive fireball blasted across his compound. A huge surge of orange flames filled the vehicle, immolated the driver and blasted out of the open window. The windscreen shattered, the rear doors blew open, and the fire spread up the side of Hans’ house, and over his collection of precious scrap. The guards were knocked backwards, the gates broke open and two human torches were seen running into the grasslands. They were rapidly followed by the panicking guard dogs, who ran off yelping into the night, their master forgotten.
Fire spread over the entire compound, rising higher and higher until it could be seen from many miles away. As the heat built, the nearest buildings began to smolder, their residents stumbling out and desperately searching for water.
Eben saw the flames rising and lighting up the skyline. It looked to him to be in the wrong place, but that was the signal, and he’d had enough of waiting. He was still sweating, but finally being on the move cooled him a little. His vision blurred suddenly, causing him to blink furiously, he hoped the others didn’t notice his momentary weakness. The minibus was soon on the road and heading at speed towards the town. The conflagration was clearly visible now, an orange glow punctuated by small explosions under-lighting the column of black smoke.
With the wheels now on the tarmac, Eben pushed the gas pedal right down to the floor, and the old minibus began to pick up speed, slowly at first, and then faster and faster. The wind blasted in through the open window, roaring in Eben’s ears. This sound continued as all others faded. He could feel the heat of the fire, burning through his skin and into his blood. The roaring increased, it grew hotter, his thoughts fractured, his vision began to fade. He thought someone had grabbed his arm, but he could no longer hear anything but the roaring, feel anything but the heat. Then it passed, the heat faded to warmth, the sound to the gentle whooshing of waves on a rocky beach. Eben smiled, this was more like it, a relaxing walk by the sea. He sat down, then laid down, and drifted off into a deep sleep.
The minibus veered off course despite the front-seat passenger grabbing the wheel. It ran across the road and smashed into a concrete bridge support at full speed. The old vehicle crumpled like paper, the passengers were thrown into each other, skulls cracking against skulls, seats, and windscreens. An unsecured gun began to fire as the enforcer holding it reflexively gripped at something to stop his motion. Another ordinance was set off by this, a chain reaction occurred, eventually hitting the fuel tank and filling the minibus with fire. Everyone in the vehicle was dead in seconds, although this sudden loss of life went unnoticed as the much larger fire captured everyone’s attention.
Crowds gathered around Hans’ enclosure, enmities forgotten as they jostled for a better view. Inside the building, the heat ignited ammunition and other explosive chemicals. The paper money in Hans’ safe burst into flames, a small fortune in banknotes turned to ash in seconds. The small amount of gold survived longer but eventually melted when the integrity of the safe failed in the intense heat.
When the dawn arrived, the house was still burning, the flames gradually fading throughout the day, until by nightfall all that was left of the house, the truck, the man, was a small pile of warm ash.
At the rear of the crowd, the EDAI workers observed the scene. Through their eyes, ANI looked at the devastation and noticed how very pleased the locals were.
From the roof of an old warehouse, Bokang lifted her binoculars and watched for the tell-tale orange glow that would show the plan had been put into action. The warehouse roof wasn’t really suitable for standing on, with its rusty corrugated iron panels, but this event was important enough to take a risk. Besides, it wasn’t as much risk as her partner Eben was taking. They’d planned a retirement together, and as they got closer to the date, she worried more and more.
She’d climbed up here via a metal staircase, probably the remains of an old fire escape. The whole thing had swayed as she transferred her weight to the roof, and she was now wondering if it was safe to climb back down. She lifted the binoculars again, tucking her elbows in to steady the view, just like Eben had shown her. The binoculars were army surplus, covered in green paint, and the image was sharp and bright, at least in daylight. Eben had bought them for her as a gift because she’d said something about looking at the moon. She smiled, she’d have to be less subtle if she was to get him to buy her exactly what she wanted.
There was still no sign of the fire, and she began to worry something had gone wrong. Perhaps the whole thing had been called off, and Eben would be back soon. She turned the binoculars to the main road that went past the industrial estate but wasn’t able to see much besides the occasional truck and a few dull lights. If something didn’t happen soon, she’d have to go back down. The workers in the drugs factory hidden within the warehouse would start to slow down if she wasn’t there. Any loss of production meant a drop in profits, and that couldn’t be allowed.
Bokang looked towards Sohalo, and this time was rewarded with an orange light, which grew brighter over the next minute or two. She was so wrapped up in events she slipped, managing to catch herself before she fell onto the fire escape. Satisfied now all was well and the plan was proceeding as it should, she carefully lowered herself back down, transferring her weight cautiously until she was happy it wouldn’t all collapse.
She stepped off the bottom rung with some relief and went back inside the warehouse. It was a large building, stripped and robbed clean of anything of value a long time ago. At the rear of the building was a false wall, and beyond was the drugs factory. To one side of what looked like a plain wooden wall, Bokang opened a panel and entered a four-digit code to unlock the door. Inside, the factory was dimly lit, humid an
d crammed with machinery and people, working elbow to elbow weighing and packing the drugs. Behind another wall was the laboratory in which the drugs were made. This was well lit and air conditioned, as it needed to be. Bokang liked the coolness in there but not the smell or the threat of chemical explosion if something went wrong.
As Bokang had suspected, the workers were idling, some still working slowly, some not at all. Her temper rising, the heat flushing her face red, she stormed over to the nearest worker and slapped her head.
“Work faster! If we miss our targets you’ll get no pay!”
The worker didn’t answer but turned slowly to face her. The worker was a woman who looked about sixty. Her skin was covered in sweat, her eyes unfocused and her speech slurred as she tried to answer.
“What are you saying?”
In reply, the woman slumped in her seat and fell sideways onto the floor, the ancient stool landing beside her with a loud crack.
Bokang kicked the woman. “Get up! Get up now or you’re out!”
There was no reply but a small hint of breath, and then nothing. Two of the other factory overseers arrived now, ready with their sjamboks. Bokang yelled at them, the heat of the factory adding to the heat of her anger. “Get her out. If she isn’t dead, make sure she is, and get rid of the body.”
The two enforcers jumped to the task, lifting the emaciated corpse with ease, then carried her out of the warehouse. Bokang spared not another thought for the woman, there were plenty more where she came from. Beside the empty spot, another woman, this one very young, was working very quickly, almost feverishly, pouring a measured quantity of the white powder into small bags. Bokang was about to move on, satisfied she was working fast enough, but then she realized the woman was missing the bag she was filling, wasting the precious stuff.
“What are you doing!” Bokang yelled in the woman’s ear. She flinched and sent white powder everywhere. Bokang punched the woman in the temple. “You’ll pay for that, if you have to work until you’re dead!”
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