THE GATE KEEPER

by JULES GABRIEL

  I begin to wonder where he was heading with this conversation. Come on old man get on with it. His speech somehow aided me to think straight. With him being occupy of his speech I knew that I stand a chance of freeing my hands.

  At least I had to try.

  ‘…Its main task is to make any individual ten times or even more powerful than any average person,’ he said zealously.

  I still remain mute and observed them as they approach.

  He carry on, ‘on this mission their task is to find the hidden truth from within.’

  ‘So you’re a team of child beater?’ I brought in a sense of sarcasm.

  He stays quiet for a while. Listening to the hum of the aircraft and the monotonous thud of the robotic boots which instil fear through me. Curiosity of their ill fate plan troubles my mind.

  The old man point a finger to one of his ear, ‘do you hear the slight vibration?’

  He pauses and stare at me deep in my eyes. As if he had expected me to crack under fearsome pressure. Deep down the jolt I was hearing did scared me. I had to find a way out, I thought.

  I glance at him and the exoskeleton beings heading our way. ‘We can make a deal.’

  He turns around and nods at his foot soldiers. The jolt came to an end. He produces a mischievous smile and says, ‘I’m all ears. Do not mistake me for a fool. You see fear is the ultimate goal when it comes to gaining access to information.’

  ‘We can exchange information.’

  There was an element of surprise as he sighs while staring at me. ‘Are you making a mockery out of us? In that right mind of yours, do you see yourself under any circumstances able to strike a deal?’

  Muse with a pause I felt I had to come up with a smart answer though I was running out of them. ‘Definitely no, I was just hoping that you could only reach out for the gentleman in you and greet me with mercy,’ I challenged.

  He sighed joyfully as if surmising himself as the claim gentleman. After a small pause he frowningly states, ‘aren’t we all a survivor when it comes to saving our skin?’

  Puzzle I felt that I deserved an answer. ‘What do you mean?’ Irritating, I asked.

  He glances at me with blunt emotions. Then he walks away in a slow circular pattern and carries on, ‘we all got secrets and yours is one I’m trying to figure out.’

  With confrontation scepticism I ask, ‘where are you coming from with this argument?’

  ‘The fact is that you don’t probably recognise me.’ At a halt near the door he looks at me. ‘Do you recognise the old face you see before you?’ he asked.

  I studied the contours of wrinkles, shape and elevation of his face. The neat shaven beard, Moustache and decent trim haircut made him appeared ten years younger. Facts that he was not bothered about dying them were in plain sight.

  ‘Sorry for disappointing you but I still can’t figure out who you are. Are you supposed to be a superstar?’

  He lunge a fist in my face. Fast and unpredictable for an old man, thoughtful sarcasm which I wanted to share but instead I decided to stay mute. Burning sensation from my nose and inner lips had forcefully made me divert my thoughts.

  With my lips I could assess the damage done. Inside my lips I could taste the blood oozing out of the miniscule cut. At the bridge of my nose I felt warm fluid flowing towards my mouth. I lick a sample to confirm the taste of blood.

  The old man opens his arms and smile. Winking and gesturing that I should know him. ‘It’s me, your old buddy Michael!’ he said as he laughed.

  It felt odd. Michael, my colleague in my time and a friend I was not sure of it. He had always felt that he was my competitor instead of a friend. I was in the future. His present, therefore his aging appearance made sense but there was one thing that did not add up. His mystify involvement with the whole show.

  ‘Surprise, eh,’ Michael said as he carry on laughing.

  There was no doubt that the old Michael was enjoying his gleeful humour. He takes a peek at his foot soldiers. My male captor gave him a jovial smile. My female captor seems not to care much as she bluntly looks at me.

  ‘What really happened between you and me? Back then we use to be buddies.’ I lied.

  Caught by surprise he kept quiet. ‘Friends eh, now we’re friends,’ he insisted.

  I kept quiet. Silently I was begging for him to vomit the facts.

  ‘You see we were once friends that we stop competing against each other and we had entrepreneurship marriage between our companies. Your promise to our mutual bond was for us not to have any business secrets. For ten long years my ability to financially make headway with your ability to invent was far beyond the reach of those that envy us. Five years ago you disappeared and I noticed a big chunk of our funds gone.’

  ‘You mean I stole from you.’

  ‘Yes us, half of our corporation money. Five hundred billions of dollars wipe out without a trace. You see with that kind of corporate money gone missing you can expect those at the board and its investors to get answers. Money I was accountable for as the CEO of our company. Being a member of the board I had the responsibility to investigate as they held me liable for the crimes.’

  I could not resist of not insisting at the continuous impulse of the motives of the theft. ‘What’s the motive behind it?’ I press for a provocative and controversial question.

  There was an immediate silence of speech. Michael glance at me and his two specialists with daze confusion. My guess is that he must have never seen that coming.

  ‘Clueless,’ he said, pondering for the truth.

  ‘I thought I was indeed a friend that you perfectly knew.’ I fish for the facts.

  ‘That’s why we’re all here today. After five years of you, gone missing with an illegal lump sum, I finally got in touch with you twenty four hours ago.’

  Instantly he kept quiet in search for reasoning. Low hum of some sort of engine’s flight persists. We all stare at him waiting for him to satisfy our hunger and desire for the vital information.

  ‘So we did meet again.’

  ‘Not in person but electronically through a hologram’s message of yourself. Like I’ve promise this little reunion is all about finding the truth.’

  He turns, stares at the muscular assassin and says, ‘Mr Mac.’

  Thud sound of heavy machinery boots brought in fears as Mac turns his back and face the front. His stunning colleague’s eyes did not dare to keep me out of her sight. In between the two exoskeleton soldiers there was an empty space which leads ahead to where the aisle came to a halt.

  Mac raises his hands with slow precision. He slowly twists his hands. Metal made quenching sound and bolts from the front flows backward to us. Then he closed his fist and part of an unseen door collapsed. He cross both of his hands and open them wide. There was a loud bang and there was an opening straight to the pilot seat.

  In between the pilot and the man-made crevice I could see the time machine. I felt that there was hope. Helplessness vanishes as I search for a way out of this miserable seat. Determine to free myself I glance at the ‘V’ shape of the metal harness. At the bottom of the metal harness I notice a red button.

  ‘Well somebody had been hiding a secret? We know that you know what it is. The only problem is that we don’t know what it is. After years of keeping me in the dark I heard from you two weeks ago. Finally it seems you decided to trust me again. But you chose to trust me on handing over this weird machine to you without explaining it to me. It doesn’t make sense,’ Phil said as he turn his back and stare at the time capsule.

  I slowly lift my elbow up, squeezing my cable tied hands where the ‘V’ shape metal meet and comes to a halt once my thumb reach the red button.

  He glances at me and says, ‘It’s only now which I get part of the mystery. Uncontrolled circumstances must have occurred and I must be part of the cure.’

  I press the button. Abrupt disengagement of the locking mechanism unloosed the safety harness. I fully stretch my hands skyward. Push
ing the harness up and then I let it go. Before I could get a chance to fully stand Phil execute a back kick in my belly. It cut off my supply of air and I land back in the seat.

  He follows up with a kick in my throat. He left it there and applies pressure.

  ‘Nice try, but we came well prepared and we can guarantee that you won’t escape,’ Phil snapped.

  Starved of air I felt like I was about to leave this world. I started to feel dizzy until he eases his side kick at my neck. Then he says, ‘stand down I got this. What is the purpose of that strange machine?’

  Both of his soldiers stood down as requested. They maintain alert. Ready to intervened if their employer lost. I lunge my tied hands towards the back of his knee while I kick the side knee of the supporting leg. He went down and I stand up connecting my knee to his face. He instantly went down on his side.

  ‘Get him!’ Nastassja cried out.

  Big Mac throws two fast flights of punches. I step away and counter attack with two side kick to his face. Without delay he coordinates with my movements and blocks it with his open palm.

  On the floor Phil was on all fours. His face was bloody. I sprint, jump on him and produce a semi flying kick on big Mac chest. He went off balance for a while and quickly recovers. The lady assassin caught me by the neck, lift me up and throw me at the back. I land at the incline door.

  She helps her boss to stand up. Phil uses her for support and was on his feet in no time. There was a sudden vibration. Then I felt the incline door moving down. Mac had press the emergency button. He was smiling at me as the door slowly open. I had to get to the time capsule, I promised myself.

  Michael removes a white handkerchief from his pocket and wipes the blood off his face. Then he says, ‘there’s no way out as you can see. The only way out is down my friend, unless you tell us what we want to know.’

  Big Mac rushes on me. Like a mad bull he throws punches at different angle and I try to block. It was so fast and powerful that it went through the block. It brought me down to my knees. He quickly caught me by one arm and Nastassja copied the same movement.

  With my feet barely touching the floor and my arms lock I felt powerless. Gust of wind mixed with drizzle moves through the open door. I felt cold and afraid.

  ‘That machine was delivered by your old self to hand it over to you for the cost of the lost billions with interest. Why are you so important for your old self?’ He asked thoughtfully.

  I try to find of a way out as he was trying to solve the puzzle.

  ‘Young Phil and an old Phil,’ he crazily mumbles repetitively underneath his breath.

  The time machine was not far from him. Only if I could reach it, I dream about the possibilities of reaching it and wish I could make it.

  ‘You must have travel through time. Remarkably interesting, Phil has find ways to go through time hasn’t he? For your own sake instead of putting on a bargain which you can’t win, why don’t you be a good boy and give us what we want to know? I’m old and tired of those sick games of yours. Believe me we’re going to drop you to you death unless you collaborate.’

  I remain mute. He approaches me and I kick him in his face. He falls on his butt.

  Big Mac turn towards his boss and says, ‘we should get rid of him boss.’

  He let me go and moves to his boss living his colleague female to hold me. Quickly I produce a precise sidekick to her temple and she falls down. She was unconscious. Big Mac set Michael in an empty seat. I remove the sword over Nastassja’s back and plunge it firmly to the floor. I drove my hands closer to its blade exposing the cable tie to its sharp edges.

  My hands were free. At last, I became aware of my purpose.

  Mac gets up and looks at me. He charged on me. The thud was louder and scarier. I grab the sword from the floor. He furiously throws several sudden punches and I use the sword to block it. His hands bled. He change tactics and uses the back of his hands.

  He shields his arms behind the metal exoskeleton which was exposed to the outside of his arms. Evolving with his own flaws, he attack and defend with it. Willing not to be slice and dice, he brilliantly fights as a thinking fighter.

  The two metals give off spark as they collide under extreme force. I swing the blade to his cheeks and it connects to the exoskeleton metal brace on the outside of his arms. I twist the sword in my hand as I back away. I made a three sixty move in a desperate attempt to confuse my opponent and swing the weapon towards his knees. Before I could strike him he kicked and produced a sudden impact to the sword. It flies by and went straight through the wall of the aeroplane.

  Amaze and in shock I freeze for a while. Still staring at the sword stuck in the wall I felt helpless. At my peripheral view I saw a movement moving towards me. My reflex action instinctively took control of my body that I roll on the opposite side. Away from the incoming danger which smash through the plane’s wall.

  There was a large crack in the left side of the wall. Big Mac’s left foot was stuck in it. He pulls it out. I went for the sword which was on the opposite side of the wall. I struggle to pull it out but fail. It was stuck. He head for me.

  ‘You won’t get away!’

  There was a loud blast. Louder than his usual thuds of boots. As if the sound of pressure over metal. Behind him where he had kick, a chunk of the aeroplane’s wall had vanished and my opponent flies backward towards it. The plane dives sideways towards my opponent. I squeeze the tilt of the sword as tight as I can for support. I climb to a nearby harness and look down at the capsule which hit the other side of the frail wall at the front.

  Mac was holding a harness at the opposite side. Michael had strapped himself with the metal harness. A quarter of his seat was dangling out of the expose blown out part. He had caught Nastassja. She was conscious and dangling outside of the plane holding firmly at his master’s hands.

  The light from within flickers.

  Straight ahead I could see the metal harness still stretch upwards. It laid in order like a ladder. I had to reach the capsule, I thought. I use it to dangle across. Upon reaching the second harness I saw myself in the epicentre of the sucking force. It seems the debris from the wall had damaged the left engine. The plane was losing altitude at an increasing speed.

  My inside swirls with the drastic fall. I felt like I was at the verge of vertigo as dizziness strikes me. Determine I press on by fumbling across the harness. The plane rotates and flops downwards.

  My body hit the harness and I slide forward across the harness. I fiercely grab one. Beneath me the nose of the plane dives at a vertical angle. The harness Mac was holding break free. His body spins wildly as it head downwards, passing by, zigzagging and hitting the edges of the inner objects. Missing a near collide with me and his colleagues. He smashes through the cockpit’s window and head downwards like a speeding bullet.

  Michael firmly holds his colleague as she gets hold of an emergency parachute from underneath a seat. She wears it. I quickly climb down. Put my palm on the time capsule.

  ‘Subject Identified.’ - The screen of the machine states.

  Its door opens. I climb aboard.

  ‘After all you are from the past!’ Michael seeks for reasoning.

  ‘Save yourself or the truth shall kill you!’ I said.

  ‘We shall meet again.’

  ‘I doubt it.’

  Michael and his beautiful employee stare at me for a while. I close the door. Select the date the computer had asked. I type in zero, three, zero, seven, one and four. Michael climbs out of his seat with the help of Nastassja. Through the opening they both throw themselves out holding each other’s hands firmly.

  They were gone. I press the button. Inside there was a countdown from ten. The final and familiar moment I had been waiting for. I was going home. Effects of blue flickering lights kick in. At five the lights flickers wildly. I became visible but the machine starts to disappear. At two seconds I couldn’t see myself but the machine was there.

  At one second I could n
ot see either me or the machine. I could see myself engulf in an intense fire. Bits and pieces of the aeroplane scatter around violently into different direction. Then it disappears and I could see the stars.

  Then I slowly becomes visible and the machine as well. It all stops and the door opens. I walk outside fall to one knee. Time travel sickness had caught on with me.

  20

  Nastassja and his master were out. Their flight out of the aeroplane had been a narrow escape. They had no choice. It was bound to crash and burn. They had lost sight of it as they hold each other firmly and rotate wildly.

  ‘Hold on we’re nearly there!’ Nastassja comforted her master as she glance at the illuminative data on her watch strap to her hand.

  Their body was moving at an uncontrollable terminal velocity. Like a speeding bullet they went down. At times they were upside down and at times on their side. Powerless and under the control of fierce gravity Michael began to fear for his life.

  Though he was old he was not ready to die. He had not envisioned himself being smash to the ground and die instantly. He had wanted to have a normal one. Old and bedridden, gasping for his last breath was how he wanted it to end for him. He wondered how we all do not get a chance to choose the end of our destiny.

  Ambition had allowed him to be vigorous and robust. He had been through hard times. Today he wasn’t willing to die. He thought of Phil. He’s traitorous move which had put him and the corporation in the light of corruption allegation. He holds on to his apprentice and closed his eyes. He had trained her well. He put his life into her hand and waited.

  Miles below Nastassja saw a flash of explosion which spread like a mushroom cloud. The night sky was on fire. She could see how far they were to it. She released the parachute and they were thrown upward. Backward and to the side, the jerk came to end.

  She was in control. With the two strings attached on her suit she directed it as his master open his eyes and stare at the spectacle of fire work from below. Afar from the crash she made an attempt for a comfy landing.