by Richard Lord
Phillip looks at Renfield who is furious beyond words. At first he considers mentioning it was Illumna’s concept, but then he realizes that doesn’t change the fact that he not only agreed to it, he built upon the plan. He struggles for words as he feels Renfield’s arms around him.
“I just needed you to understand. I won’t stop you because what Stephen is doing is with god intention, but it’s horribly, disgustingly wrong. I know you know that from a completely different perspective than I could and I respect that fact.” Renfield wipes at the sweat that he is producing more than he normally would. “Is there anything you ask of me?”
Phillip looks at Renfield, realizing that he is not the monster his father described him as. He can tell that Renfield truly does feel and has compassion. He thinks through the things left undone, besides getting his friends to safety. “There is a woman. She is with child. She is already part synth, but someday, her child will need help. So that’s what I ask of you. Please.”
Renfield nods. He walks back over to the craft. “I know I already said, it but I want to say it one more time, Illumna. I love you. I don’t know what else to say.”
“Dad, that’s enough. Thank you for coming. Thank you for not interfering. Thank you for being my Dad.” Illumna responds.
“Thank you for being my daughter! I guess I got lucky, huh?” Renfield wipes the seat away from under his eyes.
“Obviously, that’s why I exist, Dad!” Illumna replies.
“That. Only you Illumna! Your sister…”
“Solstice?” Illumna asked but clearly she knew what Renfield was referring to.
Renfield wiped at the sweat that was dripping out of his eyes. “Yeah.” He wiped again, because it kept flowing and he wasn’t sure how to stop it. “She’s…just promise me, say a prayer for her to whatever you believe in. She’s not with us anymore, but I think she will hear it. Ok?”
“Yes, father.” Illumna tests her jets as Phillip walks past Renfield and climbs inside the cockpit. “I love you too. I could have had a simpler father in my dreams, but you were an interesting one and you always cared. I couldn’t hope for more than that, Dad.”
As the craft took off on its final voyage, Renfield realized the water leaking from his eyes was not sweat.
CHAPTER 20
“So much time, so little to do.” -- from the Book of Stephen
“Hello, Stephen?”
“How could you click in here? I held off our father and Bob with my system.” Stephen responds and clicks behind Renfield, but Renfield doesn’t even turn to face the attack. Stephen moves to make a crushing blow to the base of Renfield’s skull, but his hand moves through it as if it weren’t there. Stephen notes a strange sensation and looks at his hand.
“If clock is off by 55 minutes and it has no hour hand, it looks like time is moving backwards. To the observer.” Renfield comments as he turns. “Stephen, you are not the master of time and space. But you have been the death of our family.
Stephen’s mind begins calculating as fast as it can what Renfield could possibly be doing. The look of surprise makes it clear this is something he has never thought about, even in all of the years he tested theories and ideas.
“Explain. How did you do all of this, Stephen. The field that keeps us from clicking in, etc. Fascinating stuff. See, I studied myself in a formal setting, informally, of course, but you seem to have cracked something about how all of this works that I haven’t.” Renfield folds his arms and leans back a bit while narrowing his eyes at Stephen.
“Well, you clearly have figured some things out, Adam. You’ve been around the longest and you got in here, somehow.” Stephen walks past him realizing that if he can’t attack Renfield the same must hold true in reverse.
“It seems odd to me. You must have cheated somehow.” Renfield says.
Stephen stops and turns and says, “No, it was obvious, but you haven’t seen it after all years which means you’re slow.” He then turns and continues to walk.
Renfield says, “Odd, Stephen since everyone always thought you were the idiot child.”
Stephen stops and turns quickly and clicks in front of Renfield’s face and yells, “Who is everyone?”
“Well, I have to admit, it’s a small group of people. Not too many people ever liked you, so I don’t suppose you had too many friends. So taking that out of the equation that leaves your own family, which you end up rewarding in horrifying deaths. So I’m going to guessing their last few seconds they pretty much hate you too. So, let’s do the math.” Renfield hoods out one hand and starts ticking on his hand. Then he holds up the other hand and laughs, “I won’t need that, your sphere of influence with anyone other than synths or people who are greedy is…” He makes a goose egg symbol with the hand he isn’t ticking away with. Then he looks at the ceiling and says, “Yep, let me round up here, so we can deal in simple numbers for a simple minded man.” He watches as Stephen becomes furious and agitated. Then he comes to a numerical conclusion, “Everyone” He looks at Stephen and cocks his head to the side with a wry smile and continues, “You’re such a piece of crap that there is no one who likes you, Stephen.”
Stephen losses control and knowing it will do no good attacks Renfield again. Again he feels a strange sensation with every blow, but again Renfield doesn’t seem to react, even slightly.
As Stephen controls his breathing and again resumes walking away Renfield looks up in the sky and says out loud, “I love you, Illumna! I hope I helped you, dear.”
Stephen turns with a huge question mark on his face. “Why did you say that?”
“Doesn’t matter now. It’s too late for you to do a damned thing about it.” Renfield grins at him and then adds, “You really aren’t that smart are you, Stephen?”
“What are you getting at?” Stephen demanded.
“It’s not me who’s going to get at it. Bye, bye Stephen, hope you enjoyed your stay.” Then Renfield looks up at the ceiling again and clicks away.
Stephen realizes that the whole conversation was to keep him occupied. Something must be happening. It has to be something from above. He runs to get back to his desk and he scans the immediate area for Illumna’s mind. Then he types vigorously as he expands his mind further and then he hears her. “Now that’s a cool Dad! He’s more complicated than time, isn’t he Stephen?”
Then there is nothing.
CHAPTER 21
“I could if I would, but I won’t so I can’t, yet I did it anyway. I suppose it’s difficult for me to decide if making decisions is easy.” -- from the Book of Bob
She remembered what Adam had repeated many times. Don’t appear in front of people who don’t know or click out in front of people who don’t know. But this was a different circumstance. She had learned, after doing it many times that I left an effect on people that was more valuable, so far, than it was harmful. She knew the time would come when it would catch up with her. Adam would be right. Adam was always right, eventually. It was part of what annoyed her about him and why she couldn’t forget him.
“Just hand over everything and head back to whatever hole you crawled out of.” The man yelled. He motioned for one of his accomplices to take action against the weakest of the group.
The man walked over and kicked the elderly lady hard. “He means don’t come back. Be glad you’re getting away with your lives!” He turned to the his fellow accomplices and smiled knowing he had affected a psychological blow to the entire group that he intended. It was evidenced by the fact that they all began laying down everything they were carrying and backing away as a whole. He smiled to himself for his deed and thought to himself, “Get the job done!” and then he laughed out loud.
The obvious leader of the bandits, spoke again, “Tell people you meet they can’t get into the city or they can pay the tariff. Otherwise, don’t waste our time.” He looked down at the things the pilgrimage group had brought with them to start their new life in the city. He saw a glass trinket. That was rare. He stompe
d on it. “We control all roads in and out of there.” He turned and pointed back to what had been a growing city, now stifled due to the actions of those who didn’t want certain people in their city. He yelled loudly to make the next point, “You all clearly don’t have the money to pay the tariff, so pick up your feeble woman. Filthy disgusting drain on the rest of us! I’ll give you ten seconds to carry get her and carry her away and take yourselves with her!”
As the group of people turned, realizing their pilgrimage to the promised city was in vein, they had their heads hung low. Staring at the ground, they didn’t immediately notice. Then they looked up at the woman standing there. The coterie of men who had taken everything they had was behind them laughing and suddenly went silent.
“Where the hell did she come from?”, yelled the man who had kicked the elderly woman.
“If you survive this day, let it be known the roads are open to everyone. As the martyr intended!” Tomorrow bellowed to them and then clicked behind them. Then she yelled out, “Boo!” As they all turned she asked, “Who’s first?” Then she clicked again and was again aft of their focus, but this time she grabbed the head of the one who was clearly the leader of the pack and twisted his head upward and to the right, hard. As his body fell she clicked again and reappeared to their left, again the direction opposite of where they were looking. “The city is for all people.”, she yelled. Then she again clicked and was one hundred-eighty degrees from her previous location to be behind their focus again, she grabbed the hand of the one who had kicked the elderly woman. “You don’t get to go so easy.” She then forced his hand downward and back crushing his wrist and again clicked to be on his right and grabbed his other hand and used the same maneuver, breaking most of the bones in that wrist. Then she clicked again behind him and kicked him hard as he went forward he instinctively put out his hands to catch his fall. It was a painful mistake on his part. He screamed in agony as she clicked again behind whom she had designated as number three. She lifted her boot to her right hand, swung wide. Blood began spraying from the man’s neck. She ducked as the blood hit the man she had designated as number four in the face causing his advance to pause. She stepped into his belly and with the same hand and instrument within it, she cut deep into the soft spot, pulled up quickly, then withdrew her hand. She turned to the man she had designated number five. His eyes were wide in fear and confusion. She yelled, “I am telling you right now, if you run I will kill you. If you turn your head away from me, I will kill you. You will watch what happens to him. If you close your eyes, I will kill you. In fact, if I see you blink, I will kill you. Have I been clear in my instructions of the multiple things you could possibly do right now that will end in me killing you?” The man nodded and he opened his eyes wider while concentrating on not blinking. She saw him blink reflexively and chuckled to herself. As she approached the man who had kicked the elderly lady. He was laying on the ground staring at her, chest planted in the dirt. His hands were trembling and useless to him. He focused on her eyes as he tried to covey that she should have mercy on him. She grabbed at his right ankle and slit his Achilles tendon. His leg jerked at the pain and as it found target in her abdomen, he screamed again in pain. As his left foot rose instinctively she grabbed it and cut the Achilles tendon on that ankle. She walked over to stand in front of him. “I guess you’re not going to run away, little man. You’re friend here could carry you back to safety when I leave, but…”, she clicked over to the one she designated as fifth, while looking him in the eyes she rose her voice to be sure the man on the ground could hear her. “If he tries to carry you back, I will kill him.” Then she looked number five deep in his eyes and he nodded understanding to her. Then she moved her face close to number five’s as she whispered, “Tell anyone who will listen what happened here today. This city will not wither because your kind want to keep a monopoly on it and treat people whom have come hundreds, sometimes a thousand miles or more to be in a place they thought was safe. Do you understand?” He nodded. “If you don’t you will wake up one night and I will be there and, I’ll kill you.” He nodded again trying hard not to blink. Then Tomorrow vanished.
CHAPTER 22
“I remember being a child, but I don’t think I ever was.” -- from the notes of his sayings in the Book of Tomorrow
Before even opening the door to the classroom, she knew. Again the kids were not in it. She could hear Venetia and Tina and their thoughts, but they were vague. Clearly both of them had spent enough time around the martyr that they had built up a natural haze to their thinking patterns. She sighed as she opened the door.
“Well, you decided to come to your own class.” Venetia said.
Tomorrow replied, “Yes, I know they were here and I wasn’t and now you two are.” She looked at the clock she had placed on the wall at the back of the classroom. She didn’t realize how late she was until that observation.
Tina spoke, “Mira tells me you are doing well now, with reading time.”
Venetia adds, “James agrees and says you learn fast.”
Tina says, “Which is why it is puzzling to us.”
Venetia continues, “If you can read time, why do you still have a problem with it?”
Both Venetia and Tina turn and look at her with a very clear look of inquisition on their faces.
“Not my strong suit I guess. Are you two hear to judge me on that, make a decision or just to annoy me while I am trying to get my next lesson across to your children?” Tomorrow blurts out.
Venetia turns to Tina and Tina smiles at Venetia. Then she looks up at Tomorrow, standing in the doorway and says, “We came to thank you for doing all that you do around here. The kids were restless, as they always are when not given a task to complete so we told them it was half-day and to come in after lunch.”
Venetia adds, “It is getting hard to cover for you since we hired you to do a job we would prefer to do ourselves, but didn’t have the time to do.”
Tomorrow nods, “I understand. And it isn’t right of me to treat your kindness in a way that must seem to you as if I don’t care. I do care. I’m just not good with time, I guess.”
Tina, feeling the tension replies, “Well, the good thing is, it’s not overtaxing right now. The city is doing well at the moment. Apparently someone dealt with some people who were terrorizing pilgrims looking for a better life within this city.” She looks at Venetia who remains silent. Then she says, “It was a pretty crazy story and the one who told it has been arrested. Apparently, he didn’t even try to run, but he’s also scared to blink, even though he does. I suppose while incarcerated he’ll continue to tell the tale. From the reports he seemed extremely effected by the events and he’s not the only one in the last few months telling the same story, so it will get around. True or not.”
“That’s interesting. Well, after lunch is two hours from now, so is there anything I can do to be productive or that would help you?” Tomorrow says while placing her books on her desk and briefly abandoning her purse. She has become accustomed to her purse. She likes the tradition but wonders why the custom doesn’t lend itself to men. Then she remembers Adam often asked her to carry things so he could have both hands free, in case something were to go awry. She understood his logic on that. He was more experienced and while older, far stronger than she was.
Venetia turns, without moving the chair, so she can face Tomorrow. “So you are not interested in the man’s tale?”
Tomorrow looks up and replies, “What man?”
Tina swivels to look at Tomorrow too and then says, “The one I was just telling you about.”
“Oh yes, the brigand you brought in. Go on. I’m trying to get settled in so I am ready for when the kids get back.” Tomorrow replies.
Venetia quickly replies, “You just noted that’s two hours from now!”
“Oh, yeah, I suppose so. Well if I am prepared now, I’ll be prepared then, right?” She half smiles at the two leaders of the city. They had actually been lovers with the
martyr she grew up hearing everyone talk about, but her mother tell her about. Tomorrow looks back at the purse and considers that it would be interesting if someone had made a version that could be helpful, not burdensome in a combat scenario.
Venetia stood, her finger motioned to Tina to do the same and her other hand motioned towards the door to Tina. “Okay, Tomorrow. We’ll leave.” Venetia pronounces.
Before Tomorrow can respond Tina adds, “We are thankful for everything you do around here.” Then Venetia opens the door, holds it for Tina and they both exit the classroom.
Tomorrow lays her face in her hands and says out loud to herself, “Well, Adam was right, kind of. As if there weren’t so many women around town that could disappear in one place and re-appear in another.” She let her head sink to her desk. She knew they knew. That was obvious. She simply didn’t want to talk about it. Adam had trained her and brought her hear for a reason. He had stopped coming back, so clearly this was her home and she was determined to make it a better place because it was the martyr’s dream. That dream shouldn’t be destroyed by brigands and bandits. Just thinking about it she began listening to all of the thoughts of people in a certain part of the city, then she clicked.
As she appeared she saw rocks being hurled at a man who was destitute. She saw they were teens. She began clicking and catching the stones with her right hand while cradling them all, as she caught them with her left arm. They stopped coming and she stopped clicking. She turned and addressed the teenagers. “You are free! Why would you subjugate someone else?”
They didn’t respond at first, not sure what they had just seen. Then one of them said, “Because he’s a crap.”
Tomorrow hurled a rock directly between is eyes and as he fell to the ground the youngest amongst them began drawing a stain on his trousers that was obvious to all. She looked at him. “Has this man done anything to you?” The kid didn’t respond but his friend did in his stead.