Strange Temple

by John Lilley

  ‘Carlos suggested next Tuesday. He has some kind of crisis in one of his gardens that he wants to get sorted in the next couple of days,’ said Bill.

  ‘Next Tuesday, only four days’ time, yes OK,’ Gene agreed. ‘Perhaps this knee will have settled down again by then? I’m going to get Brad to have another look at it, it’s not right.’

  ‘It’s a date then,’ said Bill. ‘You bring the burgers, and I’ll bring the beer. I’ll pick you up at 09:00.’

  ‘OK buddy, see you on Tuesday, bye,’ Gene put the phone down, still deep in thought.

  Martha returned to collect the dishes.

  ‘Are you OK sir?’ she said.

  ‘Oh, err, yes Martha, no problem, well this darn knee is not right. Can you get Brad to come and have a look at it again please?’

  ‘He is on his way sir,’ said Martha.

  Tuesday had left Carlos with a bit of a problem. For a start, he had four more beds that needed planting, but as always his biggest problem was, what would he wear? He would have liked to pack a suitcase of clothes, but could not arouse the suspicion of Central. It should appear that they were just going out for the day. He hated to think of having to wear the same clothes for a few days or even weeks. Perhaps he was reading too much into the picnic arrangements. Anyway, he’d almost finished the first bed and Juanita had already started on the second one.

  I know what will happen while I am away, he thought. The place will look like a wild meadow when I get back, all my work will have gone to ruin. Then he realised that if all went to plan he would never see his gardens or house ever again. His face went ashen with that thought, but he continued mechanically with the work in hand. He decided that he wanted to see it at its best, before he left it to Juanita, Manuel and of course Mitzy.

  Later that evening he felt that he’d come to a decision about what to wear. He would go for a layered look, which included a green safari suit. This would give him the opportunity to take more items of clothing with him. He would take a spare tee-shirt just in case he got sweaty, and he could stuff a few pairs of undies in the safari suit’s deep pockets. With the clothing issue sorted he began to think about what Bill had said in the cave in more detail. The thought that Central was watching them at every moment of the day and night was something that he’d never considered in all of his long life. The four of them were incredibly precious to Central. This had been proved on many occasions especially when Neil and Bruce had died Central had become even more paranoid about their safety, but once they had reached maturity, Central seemed to back-off for many years. When the Kids arrived, the four had little time to think about themselves. In fact, it was not until Jake and the Kids had left, that Carlos had felt lonely for the first time in his life. He remembered thinking it strange that Central had not done more to keep them in touch with the Kids and Jake. There was certainly never any mention of them unless prompted. He suddenly became conscious that he’d been sitting on the end of his bed, just staring into space, for quite some time.

  Better just try to get on with things, as usual, he thought and walked out onto the roof terrace to watch the evening sky. Juanita clicked out onto the terrace with his customary sun-downer.

  ‘Great thanks Juanita,’ he said.

  ‘You’re welcome sir, are you OK?’ said Juanita.

  ‘Oh yes Juanita, I’m just thinking about those three remaining beds. Do you think we’ll finish them in time?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m sure we will, in any case, you’re only out for one day. I’m sure they can wait until Wednesday,’ she said.

  ‘Yes you’re right dear, I was being silly. Thanks Juanita,’ said Carlos, slowly rethinking what had gone through his mind earlier.

  Tuesday turned out to be quite a windy day. Bill still had the sand in his hair from when he’d walked the few yards from the buggy to his hovercar. Jethro had not been pleased that Bill wanted to fly on his own.

  ‘But sir, you haven’t flown yourself for nearly two years,’ he protested.

  ‘Thanks for your concern Jethro. I’m going to be OK, in fact, I’m quite looking forward to it,’ said Bill. He knew that they all had to leave their “minders” at home for this trip.

  However, when Bill sat in the pilot’s seat, he thought for an instance that he would rather Jethro was there. The controls of the hovercar were ridiculously simple, much of the work being done by the onboard systems. It would have been almost impossible for Bill to crash the thing. Even Carlos was flying with the hand of the system on his shoulder. After Jake’s recent visit he was aware that Jethro, the hovercar and Central were effectively parts of the same machine, monitoring his every move and moderating some of his more extreme manoeuvres. For that reason, he reckoned that Jethro had not protested too much.

  First stop was Carlos’s. The flake-metallic purple Ranchero with extra-wide wheels was parked by the landing pad when Bill tapped the auto-land button. Carlos was out of the door before the dust had settled. Juanita was tottering along behind, making the best of the stony desert floor in her heels. She was carrying a large wicker hamper, while Carlos was carrying Mitzy.

  Oh no not that darned dog, thought Bill as he peered through the dusty windscreen.

  He extracted himself from the pilot’s seat and headed for the main hatch that had already opened.

  ‘Carlos, sorry I’m slightly late buddy, hope I didn’t disturb anything,’ Bill said winking at Juanita. ‘Mitzy my darling, I didn’t expect you to be coming.’

  He tickled the tiny dog behind its ear while looking sternly at Carlos.

  Realising his mistake Carlos struggled. ‘Yes I think you’re right Bill, let’s make today a boys-only day, just like old times.’

  He handed Mitzy to Juanita as she re-emerged from the hovercar after securing the hamper.

  ‘See you later dear,’ he said, offering no further explanation and quickly boarded the hovercar after Bill.

  ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to fly old buddy?’ Carlos asked.

  ‘Positive, anyway I don’t think Gene’s blood pressure could stand it. Don’t worry about me even Mitzy could fly this contraption,’ said Bill as he pressed the auto-take-off button and said: ‘Navigate to Gene’s,’ into the flight console.

  ‘Well, what do you think today will bring?’ asked Carlos, trying to wipe away a tear as discreetly as possible.

  ‘Oh, I think we’re going to have a tremendous time. Let’s just wait and see what happens,’ said Bill, once again giving Carlos the stern stare.

  ‘How’s Gene’s knee?’ said Carlos, returning the stare.

  ‘Well, when I phoned, he was resting. However, Brad told me that there had been some problem with the tissue assimilation of the latest graft. It seems that it grew quite well until they put it into Gene. Let’s face it, we aren’t getting any younger, and these processes will eventually begin to fail,’ said Bill.

  ‘I remember when he first wrecked that knee. It was when he saved me from falling out of that large chestnut tree (Castanea Dentata) we used to have. He’s always been the strongest of us and literally threw me back onto the branch, but then overbalanced himself. I can still hear the crack as his knee twisted under him when he hit that large branch on the way down. Good job that Brad was there to catch him,’ said Carlos.

  ‘Yeah, good old Brad, I’ll never forget him,’ said Bill, also wiping at a tear.

  Gene’s dome was now only yards away. The hovercar effortlessly landed in the exact centre of the landing pad with no further intervention from its occupants. Gene’s Cadillac had just emerged from his dome’s outer airlock. The ancient vehicle from an age long gone, rolled silently to within a few feet of the hovercar, its white-wall tires and lustrous chrome fittings resplendent in the morning sun. Brad emerged at lightning speed to open the passenger door and help Gene across to the hovercar’s now open main hatch. Bill had just reached the hatch when Gene placed his left foot on the first of the extended landing steps.

  ‘Great to see you, buddy,’ he sa
id.

  ‘Likewise old friend,’ said Gene as he moved slowly into the vehicle. He was noticeably limping on his left and leaning heavily on his stick, but as usual, he never moaned about it to the other two.

  Bill helped Gene in through the hatch and across to his passenger seat. Brad had returned to the Cadillac, picked up Gene’s hamper and stowed it in the hovercar before Gene had finished strapping himself in.

  Within seconds they were airborne. Gene waved back at Brad through the dust clouds of their exhausts.

  ‘Well I said I would never get back in one of these things, but it’s really not too bad after all,’ he said to the others.

  ‘Only because Bill flies like an old woman,’ said Carlos.

  ‘Hey, how many old women do you know?’ countered Bill. They all laughed.

  The oasis was two hours away, but the time seemed to go very quickly for everyone, as it always did when they were together. It had been the best period of their lives while the Kids were with them and they’d all become increasingly aware of their isolation since the Kids had left. There had been some talk about moving in together into one dome, but they’d all resisted because they’d become too used to their individually tailored environments. Bill tried to keep the car as low as possible so that they all got a good view of the landscape. As far as the eye could see the great dustbowl stretched out in every direction while large outcrops of rocks occasionally punctuated the monotonous landscape.

  ‘Hey. There’s the old mine,’ chirped Carlos as the twisted metal of the pit-head spun into view. Bill slowed and gave the mine buildings a quick circuit. They all had strong memories of that mine, Bill in particular. He’d nearly died there in an accident when they were on one of their rebellious adventure holidays away from Central’s grasp. They all stared at the old ruins in silence before Bill turned back on course for the oasis.

  The sun was high overhead when Bill put the hovercar into a landing cycle just fifty yards from the water’s edge at the oasis.

  ‘Wow, it sure seems a lot greener than last time,’ exclaimed Bill.

  ‘I think you’re right there buddy, I don’t remember the palms being so tall,’ said Carlos.

  ‘It’s you two getting smaller,’ joked Bill as he shut down the hovercar’s systems and opened the hatch. ‘Let’s get Gene setup and then we can come back for the picnic gear.’

  ‘Sure thing buddy,’ said Carlos as he grabbed a couple of folding chairs and a parasol.

  Gene wandered close to the water’s edge until his feet were sinking slightly in the moist sand. His expert eyes scanned the surface, instantly taking in and identifying over a dozen insects as they skimmed across the water or flew to and fro above it. Slowly he raised his gaze into the tops of the palms, absorbing any slight movements that might indicate a desert creature. He was in his element, totally absorbed, when a voice began to enter his consciousness, ‘Gene’, ‘Gene’ it seemed to be saying? There was a loud splash as a pebble entered the water ten feet in front of him. He visibly jumped while his mind returned back to the mission in hand. ‘OK, OK, I’m coming,’ he said as he turned and headed to the chair that Carlos had set up for him.

  ‘Sorry buddy, you were miles away there,’ said Carlos. ‘I thought you could rest that knee of yours and watch the critters from the shade. I might even get you a beer.’

  ‘Sounds like a plan and a good one at that, I hope Bill brought some of his famous Sand Creek pale ales,’ said Gene with a smile.

  Bill and Carlos soon had the food cooking on the solid fuel barbeque. They each had a beer on the go from the cool-box. Things were going well, the conversation, jokes and laughter flowed. When they’d finished the burgers, Bill unbuttoned the cuff on his left sleeve and extended his hand towards them. The other two knew exactly what to do and watched in fascination as the almost transparent creature emerged onto the back of Bill’s hand and touched their now joined fingers.

  ‘OK, the usual score, short bursts. The hovercar will be monitoring us closely until Jake fixes it,’ he said.

  ‘Jake. Is he here?’ said a startled Gene.

  Holding his finger to his lips, Bill said ‘This beer is getting to me. I’m going to the laver-tree.’

  ‘There ain’t no bathrooms out here,’ said Gene.

  ‘No, no, laver-tree, get it?’ said Bill. Carlos was already smiling.

  ‘You joker,’ said Gene as they all laughed once more.

  Deep in the shade of the trees, it didn’t take Bill long to find Jake. He was sat beneath one of the larger palms, swigging from his water bottle. He smiled but made no noise or movement until they were connected by the creature.

  ‘I thought you were never coming buddy,’ he said. ‘Did you bring me a beer?’

  ‘Sorry buddy, plenty of time for a beer later,’ said Bill as he embraced the now standing Jake. ‘We’ve all missed you.’

  ‘Me too and I never thought I would say that,’ said Jake.

  ‘Right, so what’s the plan?’ asked Bill, who seemed to suddenly have something in his eye.

  ‘My hovercar is on the other side of the oasis. It’s cloaked. I need to activate the device that is currently buried a few feet from your hovercar, and we can be on our way. Hopefully, we will be several hours away before they realise we’ve gone. Central has no operative installations between here and the harbour where we’re based; we’ve made sure of that. Your hovercar does have its own surveillance drone, which it will attempt to deploy before long. There’s not much we can do about that apart from destroying it, so either way, the signal will go up, and Central will be hot on our trail. There’s a small creature currently crawling around inside your hovercar, which we hope will buy us some more time. I’ll give you a signal when the path is clear,’ said Jake with a wink.

  Bill watched the creature return to within his shirt sleeve and then returned Jake’s wink with a smile. He turned silently and retraced his steps back to the picnic, paying a call to the laver-tree on the way. His implanted telemetry reported the emptying of his bladder and 400 miles away, deep beneath the desert, this fact was added to his main knowledge-space files. It kept three processors busy for several nanoseconds while they performed complex trend analysis on Bill’s physiology. The processors knew that beer had been involved.

  Things happened very quickly. The silica creature had successfully tapped into Bill’s hovercar’s systems and activated the device buried nearby. The illusion would now be more convincing. The continuous stream of biotelemetry would continue. As instructed, Bill had been careful to set up the picnic out of the line of sight of the hovercar. It was now being fed a stream of fake idle chat which would keep Central’s processors busy while the four made their escape. Also, all the hovercar’s other sensory systems had been dampened.

  Gene had nearly choked when Jake made his appearance. Bill was quick to raise his finger to his lips to indicate silence was required. They’d no time for hellos. Quickly they gathered what was left of the picnic. Jake’s eyes lit up when he saw the beer. He hefted the cool-box on his shoulder and indicated to the others to follow. Bill walked behind Jake and Gene fell into line with Carlos taking up the rear to keep an eye on Gene.

  That limp was definitely was getting worse, Carlos thought.

  They walked through the undergrowth for ten minutes without saying a word.

  Without turning, Jake said in a whisper: ‘Great to see you guys, sorry about the subterfuge. We’re going on a little trip. I’ll tell you everything when we get underway, but until then just bear with me.’

  After another five minutes, Jake stopped and adjusted a small device strapped to his wrist. Up ahead there appeared to be a disturbance in the undergrowth and like a shimmering mirage Jake’s hovercar appeared from beneath its cloaking screen. The craft seemed quite different from Bill’s. It was more military looking, bigger, with many additional pods and nacelles. The hatch opened.

  Still maintaining his silence, Jake motioned the others on board. He made a big fuss of Gene,
strapping him into his seat, making sure the full harness was correctly adjusted. The attention was not lost on Gene, who began to wonder just how fast Jake intended to go in this souped-up hovercar. He didn’t have to wait long to find out. The engines were a lot louder than the ones in Bill’s craft. Jake took the car out of the oasis as low as he could go, skimming the surrounding sand dunes.

  ‘Ok guys, this is where we find out if all our preparations will pay off,’ said Jake, ‘This is one of the cars we borrowed recently on a trip to meet the Natives, I’m going to put it into a pre-configured flight path. It can do the journey a lot quicker and better than I ever could, you’ll see why soon. We’ll be gradually gaining speed, but the car will be sticking close to the ground. It will be a rough ride, and you’ll feel a bit uncomfortable, but the journey should only last around forty minutes.’

  ‘Where the hell are we going?’ gasped Gene.

  ‘To see the Kids,’ said Jake as he engaged the auto-pilot.

  43 ON THE BEACH

  ‘What in hell is that smell?’ asked Derek as they came out of the woods on the edge of the beach.

  ‘What smell?’ said Arthur.

  ‘Oh come on, you must be able to smell that. It’s a cross between bat guano and rotting fish, lovely,’ exclaimed Derek.

  Arthur stopped and breathed in deeply. ‘Just smells of the seaside?’ he said grinning.

  ‘You must have a cold or something. It’s a shame we didn’t get kitted out with gas masks while we were in the QM’s stores. Anyway, if it gets any stronger, I’m sure we could ignite it,’ said Derek.

  ‘Oh stop moaning, just look at that view,’ countered Arthur.

  Derek had to admit that he had a point. The dense forest had given way to an impressive expanse of yellow-flowered gorse bushes. Hordes of small colourful finches flitted between the bushes gathering the abundant insect life from their thorny branches. Beyond the bushes, they could see a glimmering turquoise expanse of the Yorkshire Sea, while above the water large flocks of noisy seabirds circled and dived for the abundant supply of fish.