Another Force

by D. J. Rockland

  Nana nodded and motioned for him to go.

  As Joniver stood outside and looked through a window, he could see Emily and Nana talk cheerfully and at times they smiled. Nana looked stronger as they chatted.

  I very much love Emily, Joniver thought, and I’m glad she’s found comfort in Nana. Especially since her aunt died.

  He looked forward to tomorrow and another visit with Nana. I hope I feel better tomorrow about what she tells me, he thought.

  ***

  Jacob woke and rolled up in bed. He had to be nowhere this morning, and it felt weird. For the first time in a very long time, he had a morning without a schedule. He was a prisoner, but seeing his mother and twin brother made this all seem like something other than a prison. A gilded cage is still a cage, he told himself. The worst part of it all, he thought, is I’m not sure whose side I’m on. Hunter used me and I haven’t seen mother and the brother in years, but so what?

  His headaches disappeared and he was sleeping. He had not awakened one night since they left the terminal building last week. During one examination, the North doctor told him the headaches were an indicator his nervous system was rejecting the implants and programming. What did that mean? No matter. Sleeping is good, and I don’t miss those headaches he thought.

  This was the third straight day he would not get his morning run in. The lack of physical activity wore on his body, like a hot lamp getting too close to a wax figurine. Are they trying to break me or do they not train? I want to run. I need to run.

  These people, whoever they are, won’t let me leave this room. They even stationed a guard! Is this the resistance?

  “They’re too disorganized and too undisciplined, and they’re being led by a woman?” he said.

  It was just too much.

  He thought about his torture training. They were not even close to breaking me and they won’t either.

  The Guard had taught him to be vigilant because the enemy was well organized and well trained.

  “If this is the resistance, then I was lied to, or our intelligence was bad,” he said.

  The Resistance are terrorists bent on the destruction of civilization, but these guys had been nothing but civilized so far. The torture and interrogation must be coming.

  “I wonder if Elizabeth being my mother will have any influence?” He tried to recall the first memory of his mother. He could not remember much of anything about her. He had vague, childhood impressions but nothing solid.

  I know Elizabeth is my mother, he thought, but I’ve got no real memory of her. He had seen pictures and Hunter had talked of her whenever they met. Hunter said she had something that would allow the terrorists to run wild and destroy the world. Jacob dismissed this at the time, but now wondered if it was possible. Everyone here seemed so ragtag and unfocused to be bent on world destruction. Being here did not feel right but being lied to by Hunter and company was not right either. He felt torn.

  Suddenly Joniver popped in his mind. He did remember his doofus brother. He remembered always helping him up after he fell. He remembered the little guy could never run far without falling, and he remembered thinking how they were not the same.

  The truth was Jacob had helped Joniver stand up one time when they were toddlers. Jacob remembered telling his mom that Joniver had hit him and that got Joniver punished. Jacob laughed at his brother while he vainly proclaimed his innocence.

  “That guy’s a bit of a disappointment,” he said. “I expected a little more substance. And how did he get the chick? She’s a babe!”

  “Do people like him just lay around while the company protects them? We do the work; he gets the girl!”

  He thought of being interrogated by Joniver and laughed. Jacob had received anti-interrogation training, but it was considered a remote possibility. He actually received more training using a fire extinguisher than undergoing an interrogation.

  They’ll want to assign me a Watcher, he thought. I’ll play along and see what happens; I’ll ask for that dumbass Joniver. He had long ago learned to turn off his emotions, so the threat of interrogation was a small matter to Jacob. He would work this situation to his advantage.

  He always did.

  ***

  Emily threw the pad down in disgust. She had been working while talking with Joniver, but she sensed him falling into old habits.

  “Joniver, do you think I’m asking you to give up on Olinar? I’m not. I need to spend some time with you, and I thought you wanted to spend time with me!”

  “I do, Emily. I want us to spend a lot of time together, but I have such a long way to go before I catch up with Jacob. He’s been training for what, his whole life maybe? I’ve got to get where I can handle myself in the field.”

  “Joniver, I know you want to catch up and beat Jacob. I get that. I do.” She walked toward him, and her posture changed. “But listen, my love, you look good now! I mean you look really, really good!” She smiled and reached out to him for an embrace.

  Joniver avoided her. “Emily I’m just not sure.”

  “WHAT! You’re not sure? What does that mean? Are you saying you don’t love me?”

  “No, no, no,” Joniver said, palms outstretched in apology. “I love you. I love you very much, and I have never been more sure of it.”

  “Then what’s the problem? We should, no, wait, we must spend time together. That’s what people in love do!”

  “But Emily, I’ve got to get better. I-“

  “At what?” she cut him off. “You’ve got to get better at me. At us. That’s what you’ve got to get better at. And frankly, lately you suck!”

  “Ok, look, I’ve got to be able to go on the mission, and I’ve got to get with Jacob and-"

  Emily cut him off again. “Joniver, Jacob is not the guy you should follow. Look at how he’s always so stiff and awkward in public. That’s not you!"

  “I don’t want Jacob, I want Joniver, I want you!”

  This time she did not let him escape. She grabbed him and held him tight and then looked up at him. He sighed, and his now muscular arms encompassed her.

  “What is it you really want, Joniver?” she asked softly.

  “I don’t know, I guess I want to know how to answer the question without making you mad!”

  “Joniver, I’m being serious right now. What do you really want? I mean after all this is over and we are able to move back to our homes in the Peachtree district.”

  He sat down, and looked off somewhere.

  “Hey,” Emily said, with a snap of her fingers, and an annoyed smile, “I’m right here! What are you thinking? Where are you right now?”

  “A school,” Joniver said, seeming to forget everything else.

  “You’re at a school?” Emily asked, puzzled.

  “No,” he said, “you asked what I wanted when we get to go home and all this is over. I want to build a school. I want to teach people to read. I want them to read whatever they want to read, but I want them to be able to read some of the awesome books you’ve gotten for me to read.”

  Emily sat down and looked at him. He was doing it again. He could make her furious one minute and in the next sweep her off her feet. She shook her head and sat down next to him. “Joniver! That’s great! What a wonderful idea! That’s actually pretty impressive.”

  “Well,” he said, “you can thank yourself. You’re the one who got me started on the cool books. I had just read junk before you opened my eyes. You and that Buscar guy, as much as I hate to admit it. You both showed me some great books that took me places and showed me stuff I hadn’t seen. I want everyone to get to experience all the great stuff you showed me in those books.”

  Emily realized she had not seen or heard anything of Buscar since coming to North Command. Where was he, and would he be able to get here? Did he even know about North Command?

  Joniver took a deep breath and exhaled in a sigh. “What about you, Em? What do you want?"

  Emily thought for a few seconds. “A garden, I wan
t a garden where I can grow fresh vegetables, and make us good food.”

  She grinned at him, and he reached over and kissed her cheek, taking her hand in his.

  “Thanks for saying “us”, Em. I want you to believe me; I plan for there to be an “us” from now on.”

  “Good,” Emily said as she moved over and sat in his lap.

  “Aunt Naomi always told me, when you find your match the two of you are better together than each person alone. I believe when there’s an us, we are better than either you or me alone."

  She smiled her glorious radiant smile. Her eyes twinkled like chocolate stars in gold settings.

  They kissed. Emily leaned back after a few minutes and asked, “What will your school look like? How many students and what ages?"

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m not sure. I just know in my mind anyway, it’s what’s needed. I gotta get Olinar and then I’ve got to get this finished so I can build a school. I want this done.”

  Emily nodded, and they both sat in silence, gripped by the thought of being done.

  Finished.

  “Look, you’re right about us,” he said, breaking the silence.

  “I tell you what. There’s a party next Saturday night and we’ll go. We can dance and listen to music and get out and have fun.”

  “Are you actually asking me on a real date?” Emily cooed.

  “I guess."

  Then he added, “Emily, I do love you. This is all just weird for me.”

  “Well it is for me too. That’s why we do it together. OK?" She sounded excited, and she softly clapped her hands together and jumped twice on her tippy toes. “A real date!”

  He nodded. “Can I go work out now?”

  She dropped her hands and sighed, shaking her head. What a little boy, Emily thought, but she said, “Sure, come by tomorrow night and we can eat dinner before your evening run, or before your evening beat-each-other-up-club, or whatever.”

  She is beautiful, Joniver thought, as he walked down the corridor away from her apartment, in every way. But she sure can make me tongue tied when she wants to. I’ve got to remember the Saturday night thing. She’ll love the party and it’ll be a great night.

  He felt enthusiastic and energized. As if in a crystal ball, he could see it all unfold before him.

  Chapter 17

  They walked out of the room together, leaving Regent Blue sitting alone. They dared not speak to one another, but they both feared the next few minutes. For Regent Red this was her first Regent meeting, and she feared it would be her last.

  The meeting went badly. Regent Blue was planning something. He was much too obvious for this not to be the case. He was using the old tactic of hiding something very important in plain sight.

  Red and Green took separate elevators to the ground floor and exited at approximately the same time. Green was ahead of her by about thirty meters as planned. He reached his car, the security guard opened the door and he got in. The car pulled away from the curb and headed down the street.

  “Get a hold of yourself, Red,” she said. “Green’s departure looked more than normal.”

  Green felt confident. Blue had backed down, and although it was odd, the proper action had been taken. He ordered his driver to head to the club so he could enjoy a few beverages and the possibility of some female company before heading back to his office.

  Our new Regent Red is quite lovely, he thought.

  His car had driven approximately three kilometers from the meeting, when a barricade of debris stopped them. Green’s guards jumped out of the car in order to remove the garbage. When they did so, silenced automatic gun fire opened up from both sides of the road.

  Green and his guards died within seconds.

  ***

  Her driver asked, “Where to, ma’am?”

  “Just drive. I’ll tell you when to turn.”

  For the next forty minutes, she instructed her driver to turn at random places, issuing instructions just prior to a street or exit. She took a route that was new and impossible to predict.

  “Are we being followed?”

  “No, ma’am,” the driver said, “of course not.”

  “Good. At the next corner, stop and let me out.”

  The driver’s brow furrowed. “Ma’am, please stay with the vehicle. Protecting you outside the car is almost impossible, and we are not in a good part of this sector.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Crazies, ma’am, they’re everywhere around here.”

  “Stop!” she commanded, and she opened the door and exited the car.

  She walked down the sidewalk in her heels and business suit, looking as out of place as a princess at a dive bar. Her car rolled in the street next to her and she was flanked by two bodyguards with two additional Guardsmen in the front and rear. Her head was on a swivel as she walked, but she saw little of anything except burned out vehicles and dilapidated buildings.

  “Safe enough,” she said to herself, but she then saw something unusual. There was movement in the shadows up ahead. Although difficult to discern, she saw a group of people.

  Why would they be out at this time of night?

  Then she heard the sound of a silenced gun shot and the bodyguard on her left fell. The driver stopped the car and threw the door open. “Get in now!” he said.

  Another shot and another bodyguard down.

  The crowd of people drew closer. Two more shots but they hit harmlessly, and she was in the car.

  “Go!” she ordered, but nothing happened. “Go! Drive!” She reached up and grabbed the driver, but he slumped forward and down. The rounds had not been harmless.

  She looked outside and the two remaining bodyguards were engaged with the crowd of peop - no, wait...they are not people! They are Crazies!

  She moved to lock the doors but it was too late. The Crazies yanked the door off its hinges and the gross humanity grabbed and pawed for her. She kicked off a shoe and buried the heel in the head of one of her attackers, then another, but by now they had forced the opposite door open and entered the car from both sides.

  Regent Red clawed and kicked. Her beautiful jet black hair flowed behind her like black smoke from a torch’s fire as she swung from one side of the vehicle to the other in an effort to hold off her attackers, but to no avail. She screamed in vain, knowing there was no one to save her. Her bodyguards were down or dead, and she was as vulnerable as an ordinary citizen.

  The stories I heard as a girl are about to come true, she thought.

  Despite her violent struggle, the crowd pulled her from the vehicle. They clutched her, refusing to let go. She kicked and clawed at the raw flesh but felt the futility of her efforts. She would die, she now realized, and all her plans to free her people would be meaningless. The worst part, her life’s work would be ruined by an egomaniac called Blue.

  The Crazies carried the struggling Regent Red by her shoulders and ankles as she kicked and screamed. She happened to glance over her shoulder and saw a short black man with an afro blowout and a striped scarf around his neck step through the crowd. He was an odd sight among these grayish, pale people, but then she recognized him!

  “Dante?”

  “It’s Mganga, now, Regent. See you soon,” he said.

  Regent Red felt a pinch in her neck and all went black. She wilted like a Flower Dragon with a spear through its heart.

  Chapter 18

  Elizabeth walked in the room, a pad under her arm. The group had been waiting, and everyone stood when she entered. They remained standing until she reached the front.

  “Good morning, all,” she said in a commanding, no nonsense voice. “Please be seated.”

  The room went quiet, the dim lighting adding to an already tense atmosphere.

  “Nikolai,” Elizabeth said. “I believe you asked to address the Parliament first.”

  “Thank you, Commander,” a short skinny man said as he rose to his feet. “Senators, as you are no doubt aware, or soon will
be, we have in custody the mysterious brothers for whom we have been searching these many years. No doubt many of you feel salvation is at hand and the time to strike is now, while we are armed with these symbols of our yet to be held freedom.

  “But I warn you, fellow Senators, do not be swayed by myths and half-truths as if victory were ours for the taking, like a ripe fruit hanging from a low branch. We risk not only loss of life, but loss of our way of life. The Company is no threat to us here!

  “We are secure and by all accounts untouchable. They have plenty to harvest in the Southern world and have no need to come here, nor have they shown any likelihood to do so. Only these rash missions, such as our beloved Commander would undertake, will raise the ire of the company and its minions. Without action from us there will be no reaction from them.

  “I say, therefore, regardless of what you hear today, do not consider any mobility plan by which we would threaten company assets, human or capital. We are safe and it is our duty to stay safe and secure, so that we preserve a life for our children and grandchildren. Thank you!”

  A smattering of applause was heard in the crowd of 25.

  “Musa,” Elizabeth said, “if you please.”

  “Thank you, Commander,” said a tall well-built man in his middle fifties. He rose from his seat and walked to the front. He touched a button and a heads-up display appeared in front as well as one at each seat for the senators. He pulled his shoulder length hair back from his eyes and looked out to the small crowd. “We were elected. We were elected and charged to act in the best interests of our colony. Our good colleague would discourage us from action and our allies in Antarctica would have us do the same, but see the map before you now.”

  “The company is not idle. We know Regent Hunter is very actively expanding his power base. He recently took greater power when he killed Regent Green and Regent Red.”

  “The Regent Red is missing,” a voice called from the crowd.

  “Yes,” Musa said. “Thank you, for your attentiveness. There have been two Regent Reds in recent weeks and one was harvested and one is missing, presumed dead. This however has not been confirmed.”