A group of teenagers raced past him, although he showed little interest in them as they exchanged remarks about the Space Academy.
‘Quite a commotion this space thing has brought, don’t you think?’ a voice remarked.
The man faced the source of the voice and saw a man beside him.
‘Quite? No,’ he replied. His voice was husky from smoking.
‘Are you going to go there?’
‘Indeed, I am.’ The man collected a small, silver briefcase by his feet. ‘Can’t afford to miss it. Will you?’
‘Maybe.’
‘Better be quick,’ he said, walking away. ‘I have a feeling this will only be around for a short time.’
‘Will do.’
Roughly half the group managed to complete the run in under the time limit with the rest failing. Once both groups had finished their assigned task, they switched.
Felix had everyone start with their push-ups and sit-ups, followed by pull-ups and weighted squats.
On this occasion Alysa came first, and to her astonishment, her recovery was quicker than she had anticipated. There weren’t any aches or cramps and her body was warm from the run and exercises.
This time around, less than third of the group had made it in time.
‘Well, there’s still the written exam, so you might still make it,’ Eikichi told Janice, who panted harder than anyone there.
‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll see,’ Janice said.
‘I’m amazed, Alyssa … How can you be this good?’ Ali asked, looking at her.
‘I’m not sure myself, Ali,’ Alyssa said.
‘Yeah, how are you this good?’ Janice asked. ‘I struggled to keep up with you and Yannick in the run when you guys were in the top two. And now, you’re beating us easily in this, as well. What’s your secret?’
Alyssa was taken aback. ‘I don’t have an answer, Janice.’
‘Well then,’ She stood and approached her, stretching out her hand. ‘Do me the honour of considering me as a friend, and rival. I want to know you, and hopefully beat you one day.’
‘Okay.’ She was surprised. She shook hands.
‘Looks like you’re building quite a name for yourself, Alyssa,’ Clara said as she stood beside Yannick. ‘Keep it up. Yannick needs someone else to push him around other than me.’
Alyssa found it strange to be receiving remarks from other people about her performance. She rarely received praise, and was unsure how to respond, feeling that she might come off as arrogant.
‘Alright, guys,’ the supervisor when the group assembled together in the centre. ‘Now that you’ve completed your fitness assessments, it’s time to do your next test.’
Everyone lamented the fact they weren’t done yet.
‘Yes, yes, yes, I know, how you can possibly continue to do another thing? It’s terrible, isn’t it? Now, before you leave, place your wristbands in the bags by the door, as you exit the building. That's all. Off you go.’
The group trudged behind the assistant, following them into another building. They passed a corridor and entered a room filled with ten long rows of tables. Each table had a translucent tablet with a hologram screen covering the entire body.
The assistants requested the first hundred students to be seated at the tables, while the other half waited outside in the seating area.
It took thirty minutes before the next half of the group came in. There was no assigned seats allocated, so everyone went to a seat of their choosing before the quiz began.
Alyssa found a seat and tapped the screen. The start page to the quiz popped up and she began reading the questions. They involved maths, science and other logic-based scenarios, although much of the quiz focused on survival and behavioural questions, intriguing Alyssa.
At the end of the quiz, everyone left the room.
Alyssa realised by the end of the day that she’d met four people who were mostly like going to be a part of her team if they make into the program. She and Eikichi walked out of the building and could see there was still a long queue of eager participants.
‘I don’t think all of us are going to make it,’ Eikichi pointed out.
‘I agree. You're not going to be a drop-out, are you?’ Alyssa asked.
‘Depends if you’re one. Remember, I promised I would stick with you until the end, no matter what.’
Alyssa smiled in appreciation.
‘Hey Alyssa, Eikichi, wait up!’ Janice yelled to them.
They turned and saw Janice and the other participants they met following behind.
‘What’s up?’ Eikichi asked.
‘I convinced these guys to grab a bite with me. Wanna join?’
Eikichi looked at Alyssa. ‘Hungry?’
‘I am,’ Alyssa said.
‘That’s a yes from both of us.’
Janice clapped her hands together in excitement. ‘Great. I know a place where we can eat.’
The group made their way out, when a violent blast propelled them away from the entrance, along with everything around them.
In an instant, Alyssa’s vision went black. Wh – what happened? ... why is everything so dark?
After what felt like several minutes in the dark, her vision started coming back. She was weak and unable to move. Eikichi was beside her saying something but his voice was blocked out by a high pitched ringing sound in her hears.
She looked around and saw the entire area full of debris and injured citizens. Her attention moved toward the inside of the building where she saw blazing flames and thick murky smoke rising from the entrance doors. She felt her body being picked up as her hearing returned. The entire area was filled with people in a state of sheer panic with men and women crying over unconscious or deceased loved ones.
What's going on?
‘Alyssa?’ Eikichi said sternly. ‘Alyssa, can you hear me? Are you alright?’
‘Eikichi, wh – what happened?’
‘It was a bomb.’ He wrapped her arm around his neck and carried her away. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’
Bomb? What?!
Alyssa had a thousand questions. Then she remembered the group she was with moments before the attack. ‘The others? Where are they?’
‘They’re okay. They made it out. Come on.’
As Alyssa limped away with Eikichi, the black hazy smoke rose toward the barrier.
CHAPTER 4
THE BOMBING AT Ascent University raised massive problems for the government, detectives, and officials of the Space Academy. Committing such an act was inconceivable to them. Years had passed without incident of any kind against humans after Oblivion. Now the city rippled with panic and concern.
A female detective stormed through the department floor with two colleagues beside her. She had short light-brown hair, hazel eyes, and wore a dark grey suit, which appeared loose along her body.
The colleague to her left was garbed in a black formal suit with a ponytail tightly wrapped against his head. Dark shades stood out against his snowy-white skin. On her right was a man with black and blonde spikey hair, garbed in a suit without a tie and casual shoes.
The trio proceeded inside a spacious, five-meter-high command room.
The room was hectic. Workers sat fixed in front of holographic computer screens, looking over sources of information related to the attack. On one of the walls were large projection screens close to the ceiling – running real-time stream from CCTV cameras looking for the culprit.
‘Man, I can’t recall the last time it was this crazy,’ the black-blonde man said, looking at the skilled workers rapidly typing on the keyboard. ‘Just look at them go.’
‘Must the obvious always be stated with you, Mark?’ the female detective said, annoyed.
Though, I can’t say I disagree with you, she thought.
He chuckled. ‘Sorry. Slip of the tongue... though you must admit, this is ridiculous, Evelyn.’
She glanced at the workers and found a familiar face, Martha, who was a brown skinned
lady in a close-fitting attire.
‘Evelyn,’ Martha said. She approached them.
‘Hello,’ Mark said, shaking hands with her.
‘Luther.’ She stretched out her hand toward the man.
Luther robotically grasped her hand and shook it. His gaze never changed.
‘Still not much of talker, are you?’
‘Don’t take it personally.’ Mark remarked. ‘It’s his programming.’
‘Very funny,’ Luther said
‘I hope you got something, Martha,’ Evelyn said. ‘Otherwise, this matter is going to blow-up. And I don’t want any attention from elsewhere.’
Martha’s eyebrows rose. ‘Cecille?’
Evelyn nodded.
‘Can someone please put on screen 2 the image of the culprit, and on screen 3 the footage we found, please?’
The image popped up.
‘So far,’ Martha said, ‘we have reason to believe that this man was behind the attack. He was seen carrying a briefcase which contained the explosive device.’
On screen 3, footage of the man was played. He walked through the crowd at Ascent University before placing the suitcase somewhere in the centre of the room where all the students were waiting for their turn at the entrance exam. Then he disappeared from the building and ten seconds later, the bomb detonated, cutting out every camera connection to the building.
‘What the hell?’ Mark said. ‘I thought we were done with bombings.’
‘So did I,’ Martha said.
‘Where’s the guy now?’
‘We don’t know he disappeared somewhere in Ocal Ring.’ She showed footage of the suspect entering an alley filled with people walking to and from shops and restaurants before losing sight of him.
Luther spoke, ‘Was there any other camera nearby that captured him? Those cameras set up in the city have facial recognition in their system. It should have been easy to pick him up on one of them.’
Martha answered. ‘Yes, it should have been easy. But thing is, he’s not in the system. I’ve had people search through our records, and we’ve found nothing him.’
‘That’s impossible,’ Mark said.
Evelyn remained quiet.
‘I have several of my people investigating that avenue right now.’
‘That’ll prove to be an exercise in futility,’ Luther remarked. ‘It would take too long to find him, even if you had the manpower. He might not even be there.’
‘Replay the footage for me, please,’ Evelyn said.
Martha grabbed the remote control and clicked PLAY.
The footage depicted the man striding into an alley with people emerging and disappearing. The man never appeared again.
‘Is this the only camera positioned near this alley?’
‘No, there are others,’ Martha answered. ‘But they all lose track of him somewhere in the middle.’
Evelyn didn’t reply. Her eyes were studying the footage, while processing what she had learnt.
‘So, how are you going to proceed?’ Martha asked Evelyn.
‘If I recall correctly, there is an underground passage to that avenue. Every district ring has passages running underneath the area. There should be a manhole in the middle of the avenue. If none of the cameras posted in that street picked up the man, it’s possible he’s using the passage to avoid detection. It’d help him move through the city.’
‘It’s possible. Do you want my men to do the search?’
‘No, I’ll investigate.’ Evelyn started to leave. ‘Just continue with your search on the ground level and get me anything you can on the device he used. Also, send an image of the person to media so we can have it circulating around the people. It might help us in finding the man.’
‘Good luck with the search.’
Evelyn nodded in appreciation. She left with her colleagues and pondered on the findings.
‘So, we’re hunting for a man,’ Mark said, ‘who has been among us without anyone noticing. Nice.’
The detectives headed toward the avenue. It was full of people going about their business, while they marched through in search of the pothole. It didn’t take long for them to locate the nearest one which was about fifty meters into the street.
Luther and Mark spotted personnel belonging to Martha in the area, interviewing shop owners, as Evelyn slid the pothole lid aside.
‘Alright, let’s go,’ she said.
‘Did you find the pothole?’ Martha asked via their shared communication channel.
Evelyn heard through her earpiece. ‘We did. I’ll keep you informed should we find anything.’ She climbed down the ladder before dropping to her feet. She collected a flashlight from her pocket, pointing it around the underground passage which was a five-meter wide tunnel. The flashlight moved toward the ground to check for footprints. There were multiple tracks leading in both directions.
‘Be careful down there.’
‘Will do,’
Luther and Mark dropped after her as she scanned the dim, cylindrical channel before following the passage.
Mark put on mouth mask, covering half his face.
‘Why are you wearing a mask down here? The air is pretty clean.’
‘Come on, you know me,’ Mark said, ‘Just slightest touch of dust in the air and I’ll go on sneezing spree.’
‘Have you taken you meds?’
‘I have, though, I don’t want to risk it.’ He surveyed the passage. ‘I wonder what we’re going to find. For all we know this might have been a rendezvous point, hideout, or a passage used as a means to escape capture.’
‘We’ll find out soon,’ Evelyn said. ‘Did you bring the Zoners?’
‘Sure did.’ He took out three tennis ball-sized contraptions and held them in his hand. After he pressed a red button on each, the Zoners became operational, levitating in front of them. ‘Right or left?’
Evelyn glanced both sides of the tunnel before deciding on a course for the Zoners to search. ‘Right. Have them search the three most recent footprints and follow them.’
He calibrated the search for the Zoners before flew away. ‘Gotta love technology.’
The detectives walked on ahead for about ten minutes without a thing or person in sight.
We’ve must have passed Ocal Ring already.
Evelyn kept her attention fixed upon the darkness in front, then glanced at the dark grey walls surrounding them. The lack of colour echoed how she felt in her current state.
‘Has the Zoners picked up anything yet?’ she asked.
‘No, not yet,’ Mark replied.
‘Martha, are you there?’
‘Yes,’ Martha said. ‘What is it?’
‘How long until the scan is complete?’ Evelyn asked.
‘Probably under a minute.’
Still no sign of the man.
Evelyn exhaled. ‘Thank you.’
‘Hey, any of you have an idea what the bombing at the university meant?’ Mark asked.
Luther answered. ‘If we treat him based on what I believed we all thought of him to be, then he’s a terrorist.’
‘Terrorist, you say? I haven’t heard that in a long time.’
‘Neither have I. Actions committed by a terrorist are influenced by beliefs they consider to be greater than ideologies held by the general populace.’
‘And what beliefs would that be then? Why on Earth would they bomb the university?’
‘Someone who disagreed with what was happening there.’
‘You think this person had a problem with the space program?’
‘They had a problem with something. It’s probably why they stayed beside the device as it detonated.’
‘I picked up on that too. Strange to think they actually did that.’
The three of them came to a halt when three set of footprints diverged to different paths.
‘So, do we go on ahead?’ Mark asked.
‘No, it would be a waste of time,’ Evelyn replied. ‘If the Zoners didn’t picked up
anything, then there’s no point in us wondering further. Recall them and we’ll continue our search elsewhere.’
‘Where though? This was our best lead in finding the guy.’
Evelyn kept quiet.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.
‘What’s that?’
‘One of the Zoners has picked up something.’
Evelyn pressed down commands for a small hologram projection to be displayed on the palm of her hand.
‘I hope it’s just the guy and nothing else.’ Mark moved closer to Evelyn to view the stream.
The projection screen showed a live stream of the bomber firing with an automated weapon at the Zoner as he ran away.
‘It’s him,’ Luther said.
CHAPTER 5
RACING FOOTSTEPS ECHOED through the tunnel as the man sprinted away from the three detectives. He fired his weapon with several shots ricocheting off the walls in an attempt to keep the detectives at bay. However, the detectives manoeuvred effortlessly avoiding the shots.
Mark managed to come within arm’s length of the man and tried to disarm him. But it was no easy feat. The man seemed highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, making it harder for the detective to land a hit. All his attacks were blocked with ease.
‘So, you know how to fight, aye?’ Mark said, pressing on the attack with Luther. ‘Well, if that’s the case, I hope this doesn’t hurt.’
Evelyn observed her colleagues exchange blows with the man from afar.
This is no amateur we’re dealing with, she thought. Any other person would be in handcuffs by now.
The detective followed the fight, spotting a small black bag attached to the man. She wondered what was inside and what he was going to do with it. She spoke on her headset, ‘Martha, are you there?’
‘I am, Evelyn,’ Martha said.
‘Are your men following us on the ground above?’
‘Some are. The others have yet to catch up.’
‘That’s fine. I suspect the man will be planning to escape soon to plant another bomb somewhere in the city.’
Wanderers in the Dark Page 3