The Repossession

by Sam Hawksmoor

  finally got up there, breathless, her chest tight from the exertion and the thinner air, she felt very satisfied however, it was well worth the climb. She looked back at the farmhouse again, a tiny dot in the forest below her, the smoke still rising from the orchards. Mouch ran to the edge, desperate for water, plunging in. Genie splashed her face and arms and cupped her hands to drink, smiling as Mouch tried to lick the whole reservoir dry.

  ‘Slow down, you’ll get sick, dog.’

  Genie wanted to strip off and skinny dip but was scared to. She knew this was Fortress territory and what if there were cameras? There were always cameras now. Probably nowhere safe on earth without a camera pointing to it by now. She decided to wait until she was sure it was private.

  She found a rock to lie on and just think a while. Above her bald eagles circled the tops of trees, swooping down and rising on the updrafts. A light warm breeze blew through the forest and Genie savoured the moment listening to the music of gently swaying branches.

  Moucher swam noisily behind her, not quite believing she hadn’t leaped in with him or that she hadn’t thrown him a stick to fetch.

  Rian was helping keeping the bonfires going, heaping damp leaves on them to generate more smoke. The

  purpose wasn’t to burn, but create as much smoke as possible in the orchard to drive the wasps out.

  ‘You given any more thought to what Genie saw in Synchro?’ Rian asked. ‘She’s still having nightmares about Reverend Schneider.’

  Marshall was looking for the wasp hive in the crevices of the trees. He stood up and wiped his forehead, removing his hat a moment.

  ‘It’s that carbon blowback thing that gets me. I went to look at my notes last night. There’s nothing on it and then I realized why. When we were experimenting we only used inanimate objects. The most daring thing we ever did was try to transmit a cup of coffee from one part of the lab to another.’

  ‘It work?’

  ‘It evaporated and the plastic mug melted. Not a huge success. One thing I do know, if they are testing on humans, then there’d be a huge carbon load.’

  ‘If?’ Rian queried. ‘You don’t believe her?’

  Marshall looked at him and shrugged. ‘I haven’t met your friends, remember. I still don’t quite believe that anyone who has been teleported and not survived, can then somehow reappear, like a ghost in my house and actually talk. Never mind make sense. You have to accept that we are made of flesh and blood, Rian. If that isn’t

  transmitted and then reassembled, which is the exact purpose of teleportation, then what are you? More’s the point, what are they? Where’s their DNA now? Smeared on a wall in the transmission chamber? Renée and the others are just ghosts and as the servers start to die, so will they. It’s harsh, but you have to know that.’

  ‘But you accept Genie went into Synchro and saw people.’

  ‘Astral travel is well documented. Shaman can do it moving through space and time. Genie’s got a gift. I believe that. But I’m having a harder time accepting the others as being “alive” by any acceptable definition.’

  ‘We should get Denis and Renée to talk to you.’

  Marshall smiled. ‘Well, put it this way, I’m prepared to suspend my disbelief. A good scientist must accept the challenge that one day everything he believes in could be wrong. Besides, there’s something to this. You say that Renée told you she was maintained on at least ten thousand servers.’

  ‘More, probably.’

  ‘Well, it’s true. That’s what the Fortress project was designed to do. First you digitize the subject, store it on memory, then transmit. That was always the really hard bit, getting the DNA sequencing correct. Billions of calculations just to make an ear appear in the right place.

  Now imagine just how much storage and energy it takes

  to keep you intact after you’ve been turned into basic atomic particles. Every time you see one of those kids, it has to be draining an ocean of power on the system.

  You have no idea how much memory it must take to maintain the kids intact so you can just see them, let alone talk. That’s why I’m a sceptic. It’s been the holy grail at the Fortress since I can remember. You’d think they’d notice something like that was happening.’

  Rian mused on that.

  ‘I just don’t understand how they think they can get away with it,’ Marshall added. ‘If they’re using kids for real? It’s abominable.’

  ‘Why don’t you confront them?’

  Marshall looked at Rian through the smoke. ‘They’re dangerous people, Rian. Ruthless. There’s billions of dollars tied up in this project. Somehow they’ve rationalized this. Maybe they tell themselves these kids don’t matter, they’re loners, drifters, no one will miss them. But confront them? First you need evidence.

  Evidence people would believe. That’s harder. Remember the Fortress is one of the best kept secrets of the century.

  You try telling anyone about teleportation and before you know it there’s a man with a white coat behind you ready to lock you up forever. They will do anything to keep it secret. Absolutely anything. Think on that.’

  *

  The reservoir was a huge manmade lake, kilometres long.

  It occupied a natural dip in the mountain and there were giant rock and earth walls built up to retain the water runoff from the slopes above. Genie realized she’d have to walk to the other side of the reservoir to get a good view down the valley where the Fortress was situated. The eagles were circling a distance away now and even from this distance looked huge. Any one of them, she realized, could swoop down and grab Mouch if they wanted.

  ‘Keep your eyes on the sky, Mouch,’ she warned him as they set off again. ‘We’ll swim together when we get to the other end.’

  She was sweltering now, but feeling good about it. Fall weather wouldn’t be far off and she wanted to enjoy all the hot days they got. Her skin was improving day by day out here, but she was still resentful that she’d been cheated out of a whole summer by her mother.

  It was unforgivable.

  She finally got to the edge of the reservoir, the water held in place by deep giant boulders and a vast sloping concrete wall. She realized that whoever built it had only to seal off this narrow section and they had a natural lake, as the rest of the water was contained by the mountains on both sides. She felt like some pioneer, gazing down the

  steep valley for the first time – the green forest sweeping down far below her into the distance. A bird shrieked somewhere, alerting others to her presence.

  She found a huge warm boulder to perch on, right on the edge, Mouch lying down in the shade below her at the waterline, panting loudly.

  She trained her field glasses on the bald eagles and although it was hard to get used to observing them and getting the focus right for both eyes, it was amazing to watch them in flight. She felt she was right there and could see the updraught lifting their feathers. ‘Wow, Mouch. These are amazing. You can see forever.’

  She lost the birds for a moment as she was on maximum close-up and found she was looking at a bus stop.

  ‘Huh?’

  She steadied herself, lying on her stomach, and found the bus stop again. It was some distance away, far down the valley beside a narrow winding dirt track that snaked through the forest. No one even lived out here, so how could there be a bus stop? It made no sense. The birds swooped overhead, but she lost them and when she searched she found she was looking at the bus stop again and there appeared to be a kind of shelter there, and if she wasn’t mistaken, a vending machine.

  Even more strange.

  Then she saw there was someone, possibly a kid, hard to judge at this distance, walking along the road towards it. She could just make out he was wearing a backpack.

  Of course it could have been anyone just going trekking in the mountains. People did that all the time, nothing odd about that. But a bus stop in the middle of a forest?

  No way. Made no sense without a road. No bus was ever going
to be up here in anyone’s lifetime.

  ‘This is so weird, Mouch.’

  She forgot all about the eagles now. She watched as the boy reached the bus stop, put down his backpack and punched the vending machine. It must have dispensed a can because moments later he was sat on the ground drinking.

  She lost him momentarily, couldn’t find him again. ‘Darn, can’t get used to these . . .’ she swore with frustration as she swayed on her elbows. ‘Here he is.’

  He was lying on his back now. Had to be exhausted after that climb. Who wouldn’t be?

  She saw sudden movement. A four-by-four came into view travelling at speed down a dusty track. She was too far away to hear anything, but it came to a sudden stop by the bus stop. Two men in what looked like space suits got out and went over to the kid. They picked him up.

  He didn’t resist. Didn’t do anything. They carried him

  to the four-by-four and carefully put him in the back, like they didn’t want to wake him. Another guy went back for his backpack and slung that in the back too.

  ‘Hey, that’s not right.’

  She focused on the four-by-four. She couldn’t make out the writing on it, but she recognized the symbol.

  Fortransco. The Fortress!

  ‘You see that, Mouch? They just abducted that kid.

  They weren’t helping him. They stole him. Like they knew he was there and he’d be unconscious.’

  The guy in the suit stopped suddenly and he was pointing in Genie’s direction.

  She swiftly put the field glasses down on the rock, dizzy from the concentration.

  ‘Uh-oh, Mouch. Damn. I’m such a dumb ass.’

  Stupid, stupid. Had a reflection on the glass given her away somehow? Turning too fast she lost grip and Genie slid headfirst down the boulder into the water.

  She swallowed and choked and swore and swallowed more water again, feeling angry with herself as she struggled to get right side up. The water was deliciously warm however, and although she was fully dressed, she swam. Mouch leaped in as well, thinking it was a game, and paddled out to join her.

  ‘I suppose you think this is funny, but we should

  probably get out of here, dog.’ He just swam, dead serious, concentrating on keeping his head above water.

  For five blissful minutes they swam and savoured the crystal clear water. She knew she had to leave. They had definitely seen her but the water was so good and surely they wouldn’t bother to come up this far.

  Moucher noticed the sound first. His ears flattened and he abruptly turned and headed towards the shore in a panic.

  ‘What?’

  Genie tossed her hair and batted water out of her ears.

  Only then did she notice the water was vibrating all around her, literally forming droplets on the surface.

  The noise grew in intensity. Mouch was still frantically doggypaddling and the water was moving, definitely moving. She was beginning to move with it and began to swim towards the rock, the current gaining in strength.

  Were they draining the reservoir? Did they know she was here? She swore. Why, oh why, had she brought the field glasses?

  She was hardly making any headway at all and Mouch was coming back to her, unable to beat the current.

  She grabbed him, flipped over on to her back with the dog on her chest and kicked as hard as she could to make it to the safety of the edge.

  The noise intensified. Suddenly a huge helicopter swept in over the water, no more than ten metres above her, the downdraught pushing her under. It flew right overhead, engines roaring. She could see two men standing by an open door – they could have seen her. It slowed, hovered a moment, then dropped down over the other side out of sight.

  She realized that the vibration and suction had stopped.

  She was safe again. Nevertheless she got out of the water quickly, Mouch shaking off the water beside her.

  That was a Fortransco chopper and if they’d seen her, she was in real danger. How quickly could they get up here?

  ‘We got to go now, dog.’

  Mouch was with her one hundred per cent. His heart was still beating like a bird and he couldn’t wait to leave.

  Sopping wet, Genie collected the field glasses, regretting her afternoon had been ruined. She wanted to look over the edge, see exactly where the chopper went, but she realized that would be foolish. She had to get moving. This was Fortress territory and they’d be only too happy to snatch her for their experiments.

  How stupid she’d been to stay. She cursed herself for swimming and wasting time.

  Mouch was gone already, heading back down the dry stream bed.

  ‘You could have waited,’ Genie shouted after him.

  He stopped a moment, looked back at her, tail between his legs. He carried on. He was one scared dog and wasn’t going to wait for anyone.

  What had made the water vibrate? That was such a weird sensation watching a whole reservoir shake. She stripped off her top and shorts and began to wring them out. She thought again of the boy they’d grabbed and bundled into the vehicle. What must he be going through?

  Poor bastard. That’s when she heard the distinct sound of an engine approaching. She bounded to the top of her boulder to snatch a look and her heart sank. A jeep was driving hell for leather towards the reservoir from the Fortress direction. They had seen her.

  No time to dress. No way she could head down the way she’d come, there was no cover on the stream bed. Wet clothes bundled under her arm, she sprinted for the treeline.

  The jeep was bouncing crazily along the forest road and would be here in two minutes flat. She had nowhere to hide. Could climb the trees, but there was no safety in sparse pine trees. They’d spot her in seconds.

  She looked back, the jeep was just seconds away.

  There was a small ridge ahead, a tree growing over the top of it, its roots exposed and a bunch of rabbit holes dug into the yellow earth. She jumped into the small recess, rolled in the earth, smearing dirt over her wet body, covering herself in pine needles. She covered every bit of her flesh she could in yellow mud and bits of the forest. She squirmed closer to the ground, pulled away at the edges of two rabbit holes, trying to make it bigger and provide more soil to cover her. She hid her clothes and field glasses in the hole, lay flat and said a prayer for invisibility.

  Uniformed Fortress security guards got out of the jeep.

  Briefly glancing up she could see there were two of them, a man and a woman, and they had weapons. Genie closed her eyes, squished herself more firmly into the earth, covering her head with dust and soil.

  She hoped Mouch had gone home. The last thing she needed was for him to come back and sniff her out.

  She could hear them speaking, their voices carried far.

  ‘Something was swimming in the reservoir for sure.

  Got paw prints on a rock here.’

  ‘That doesn’t explain how they saw a glint of light.’

  ‘No, but I got still wet paw prints and could be a coyote.’

  ‘Swimming? You ever see one swim?’

  ‘It’s hot. Yeah, coyotes can swim, Gerry. I’ve seen them do it.’

  ‘OK, if you say so, but what caused the flash?’

  ‘Maybe when the chopper came in from Synchro?’

  ‘It was before that.’

  Genie couldn’t see, couldn’t look, but she could hear one of them was moving her way. Grunting with the effort of climbing the slope.

  ‘What you got?’ the guard called from the water’s edge.

  ‘Trail. Someone was walking up here, got a partial shoe imprint on the clay down besides you. Unless you think coyotes wear shoes now.’

  ‘Now you’re getting sarcastic.’

  Genie could hear the woman was getting closer to her.

  Hear her wheezing, smoker’s lungs struggling in the thin air. Genie stopped breathing. Worse, she could feel something crawling over her head towards her bare back.

  Oh my God, a beetle? What was it? Were
there scorpions up here? She hated things crawling over her.

  ‘Anything up there?’ The other guard was calling from further away.

  ‘Can’t see anything.’

  ‘Footprint – could be old. Not much to disturb it up here.’

  Genie was aware that someone was standing no more than one metre from her. Was she watching her?

  Waiting for her to move or breathe, or surrender? The bug

  had reached her back now and was crawling towards her ass. Please God, do not let it bite me! She stopped breathing entirely; she could feel each tiny footprint as it made its way down her spine.

  ‘We’re wasting our time,’ the other guard was calling from below. ‘There’s no one around. Had to be animals.’

  ‘You going to McBean’s re-opening in Spurlake? It’s a two-for-one deal on all pastries all day,’ the security guard shouted down. She was practically standing over Genie now. She could probably reach out and touch her shoes. How could she not see her?

  ‘Not unless you’re buying,’ the other guard called back.

  ‘Never eat out. Can’t afford it on these wages. Come on, let’s get back. Shift change in thirty minutes anyways.’

  The bug was circling on her back now – she wanted to scream, absolutely sure it was going to lay eggs or do something gross. The security guard moved away from Genie. Her feet crunched on twigs and gravel as she went back down the slope. Genie exhaled after thirty seconds more and drew new oxygen in, still not daring to look or move.

  She heard the jeep start up but still she didn’t move.

  Didn’t move even when the jeep moved off, in case it was a trick. In case one of them was still there, waiting to catch her. The bug was suddenly moving south again. She

  had to move, she had to . . .

  Genie rolled over and jerked to her feet, shaking the mud and bits of the forest off her. The jeep was gone for sure. She ran like some demented soul towards the reservoir and crashed in. ‘Off, bug! Off, bug!’ she yelled, rubbing herself all over. She stayed under the water for as long as possible to make sure nothing was still crawling on her.

  She was walking out of the reservoir, shaking water out of her ears, when she heard the familiar whine of a chopper engine winding up again.