CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel

by A. Bernette

  If he were on the island it would be much harder to get the information out to the mainland subsytems. He couldn’t just connect to the old lines since he didn’t know anyone with access. He considered his options for getting access back in Southern Allegiance. He could think of one possibility, but it already felt uncomfortable and discomfited.

  He would need to call on someone he hadn’t spoken to in fifteen years because she was unfortunate enough to have access to two things he needed.

  He needed Marco. When he’d seen the location of the communication transfers between Stephen and someone in Southern Allegiance it made him curious. He’d gone to school with a man from that same city, Santoria, east of the Amazon.

  Zura asked him to check on what the kids were doing and so he continued to dig, until he found the class they’d logged into and the names who’d logged in. It had taken a full week of searching, but Rupert had finally figured out that Marco was who he thought he was. The last time he’d spoken to his mother Teresa it was after his friend and college roommate Sandro Garcia disappeared.

  Rupert never found out exactly what happened to Sandro and Teresa didn’t want to talk about it. Despite knowing very little of the truth, she tried to keep her boys much closer and out of trouble. Something that seemed impossible given they had their dad’s adventurous and indestructible spirit.

  The only time he heard from them was a periodic holiday greeting during the Winter Solstice. Over the years they’d become more and more sporadic. The last one was after Marco had turned sixteen and had a picture of him and his brother Locan, who’d become a pilot after serving as an SEP Officer.

  Sandro’s disappearance was much harder on Locan who was almost nine when it happened. Rupert had gone to see Teresa Garcia after Sandro’s disappearance and he still remembered how hysterical she’d been. She’d finished her training and become a nurse only a year before Marco had been born, and then dealt with the stresses of his constant illnesses that first year.

  She hadn’t reported them but she knew it was the serum. After the first year he hadn’t been sick more than a day in his life, but it had taken a toll on her. He was barely through those challenging days when their lives were turned upside down. Locan tried to be strong but his eyes told a different story as he looked on at his changed world in silence.

  Marco was barely more than a toddler and just wandered around the room touching everything he could get his hands on while his mother was distracted. He was indifferent to the fact that their lives would never be the same.

  Even then, the photos on the walls and in the displayer hadn’t been changed since Marco was a baby, still crawling. There were pictures of Sandro, Teresa, and Locan together before Marco was born. Then the photos seemed to stop, and after Marco there were only a few pictures of his father at all and even fewer of Marco with his father.

  Sandro’s disappearance had shaken Rupert too. Whatever the cause, it didn’t happen overnight. It had been going on for years until one day he didn’t come back, leaving behind a wife and two sons. Rupert had felt so guilty sitting in her living room, eating her homemade fajitas and sipping on guava juice. He always felt guilty. He still carried secrets with him that in the dark of the night seemed to steal a piece of his soul, leaving him with less of who he was when the dawn broke again.

  He couldn’t continue like this and he couldn’t tell Teresa, Locan, or even Marco what little he did know about Sandro. Though it wasn’t much, it was more than his family knew. He had to keep that to himself, at least for now, but he still needed his old friend’s sons. The pilot and the tech wiz could do something he couldn’t do on his own.

  Rupert hoped that the agents would understand his desire to stop on the mainland before heading home. As he sat looking out the window, he cooked up a plan to use the excuse of buying food and supplies. He honestly had nothing back home and things took longer to get to the island.

  If he could get Marco to load the info into the subsystem, he would find a way to get Locan to take him home. It had to work and if he could do it, that meant Zura wouldn’t have to and no one else he loved would have to risk their freedom and their lives to get the information out.

  ***

  Teresa’s mind had been racing all day since she got the message that Rupert wanted to come by while on an overlay. She had been trying to figure out what was behind the sudden contact. Fifteen years had passed since she’d last seen him.

  It felt like a lifetime and she wasn’t’ sure she wanted to resurrect the past. He said he wanted to see the boys too, but Locan rarely came home anymore. If she saw him twice a year she felt lucky, but Marco was home and he wouldn’t have any idea who Rupert was.

  She didn’t talk much to Marco about Sandro. When he was younger she tried to tell him stories of his father, but as time passed it felt useless and only caused her more pain and anger. The few memories Marco held of his father came in flashes, like damaged photographs. He could never place the scene or what was happening in the brief images he got. A look on his dad’s face, a smile, a slight movement captured with no frame of reference.

  He didn’t miss him like Locan who’d gotten him for eight years. He missed him in other ways though. He never had a father and Teresa could see the difference in how it affected Marco who never even knew what he was missing.

  Marco heard the unfamiliar voice through their entry system and ran to the door. His mother looked at him as she opened the door to greet Rupert. She wore her hair pulled back and away from her face, barely any different than she’d worn it the last time he’d seen her. Marie’s eyes were tired and it looked like she’d just gotten home from work.

  When Rupert arrived at her door, she knew him immediately. His face hadn’t changed much but his hair had grown and there was now grey in it. They’d both changed, mostly in ways that didn’t show on their faces. Time and circumstances had given some age to their appearance, hers more than his. She’d been busy working and raising two boys while he had the easy life of being single with no kids. That’s how she saw it.

  “Who’s this?” Marco asked sticking his chest out and trying to make his voice sound deeper.

  “I’m Rupert Charms. Your father and I went to school together. Sandro and I were actually roommates and good friends. You wouldn’t remember me though, you were only knee high the last time I saw you.”

  “You knew my dad?” Marco asked curiously, as he took a step back to let Rupert in the door. His knee still ached but he was now safe.

  “I did. Good man,” Rupert said eyeing Teresa for her reaction.

  He never knew what she thought about Sandro’s vanishing. She didn’t know if he’d left them, been killed, or something else. She never got answers from anyone. Instead, she was left to her own overly active imagination. That imagination had gone through every scenario from him running away to the southern tip of Southern Allegiance with another woman, to him being kidnapped and tortured, to him being killed and dumped in the ocean.

  If she ever found him alive, he’d better hope he’d been through hell already because otherwise she’d send him straight there.

  “Do you mind if I use your restroom? The ride over here was long,” Rupert asked. Teresa pointed him down the hall to the restroom and watched him, her eyes unwavering until he was in, door closed.

  “I don’t know why he’s here. Fifteen years and suddenly he wants to see us?” She rubbed the back of her hand over her head.

  “Us? He said he wanted to see me too?”

  “Sí. You too.” Teresa sat down on the chaise by the window.

  The window was open, showing a screen in need of cleaning, but it served the purpose of keeping the bugs out. It was almost too warm outside already but she liked to wait as long as possible to close up the house for the artificial cooling. It cost money that could be used for Marco’s school when he finally went to university.

  Marco looked at his mother. He wanted to know who this Rupert was and decided it would be easy enough to find
out. Within seconds he found an old profile of him. Same man but the picture must have been from at least ten years before. He was a scientist and data analyst and the profile said he was in Antarctica at the time. Antarctica.

  There was only one real reason for scientists to work in Antarctica. Marco stood, his back against the wall as he waited for Rupert to come out. He had an idea what this might be about and wondered if Stephen and Stella had put him up to it.

  “Why do you have that silly look on your face?” Teresa asked Marco just as Rupert came out of the restroom. He was walking with less of a limp now and his leg was already feeling better.

  “Do you know Stephen and Stella?” Marco asked once Rupert was almost back to the living room.

  “Yes. I’ve known them pretty much all their lives,” Rupert answered with a smile. This is a smart kid. I like him already, he said to himself.

  “What is this about? Who are Stephen and Stella?” Teresa asked walking over to where Marco had stopped Rupert in the hall.

  “Nothing, Mom. Rupert works on the ARC and knows one of my classmates who lives there half the year. It’s a small world, that’s all. Hey, can I show you something?” Marco asked. He grabbed Rupert’s shirtsleeve and pulled him away from his mother’s view before Rupert could answer or Teresa could protest.

  From down the hall she heard them whispering, Rupert talking more than Marco, both barely audible. After several seconds of trying unsuccessfully to eavesdrop, she decided she would just go and ask what this was about - as was her right. Her son. Her house. Her business. She marched down the hall towards the two men. The moment they saw her Rupert stopped talking. He smiled and began walking towards Teresa.

  “Teresa, I know it hasn’t been easy, but you seem to be doing a fine job with them. How’s your oldest boy Locan? Is he still flying?” Rupert asked trying to shift her attention away from his business with Marco.

  “He’s still flying for both the World Consensus military and private charter but he never visits me. What is going on here?” she asked waving her hand back and forth between Rupert and Marco.

  “Oh, he just wanted to talk to me. I guess he doesn’t meet many people who actually knew his father,” Rupert answered with a genuine smile on his face. Teresa pursed her lips together and let her eyes go back and forth between Rupert and Marco, before walking off into the living room.

  Marco didn’t meet many people who knew his father. Besides giving him the data and instructions for what needed to happen, Marco had taken the rare chance to ask about the man he barely remembered. Was he alive? The only thing Rupert could say was that they’d never had any confirmation otherwise.

  When Rupert finally left the house, Marco contacted Locan and told him what happened. He’d met someone who personally knew his father and who was willing to say something about him. He also let Locan know that Rupert needed his help - a flight to his island.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Open

  Santoria, Southern Allegiance

  Marco watched Rupert walk out of the door and followed him with his eyes as he headed down the sidewalk. He looked worried. Marco felt his pocket for the small microdot that had wedged itself into the corner. He would have to take his pants off and turn the pockets inside out to get it.

  “What was that about?” Teresa said sitting down on the sofa that had seen better days. The seams frayed on the arms, where her sons had spent too many hours sitting even after she’d told them not to. The once vibrant red was now faded and the wooden feet and trim were scratched and banged. She cocked her head to the side waiting for Marco to answer this time with more than ‘nothing’.

  “It wasn’t’ anything you need to worry about. He told me some things about dad, I never knew. I didn’t know how high ranking he was, Mom, in Southern Allegiance’s COPS program. Teresa shook her head and stood up. She’d never talked much about Sandro’s life to Marco after he’d disappeared. It was pointless then and still was.

  “Was that it?”

  “No. He needed my help and Locan’s with a flight. I guess since he was asking for a flight he felt he could at least tell me something about my dad. No one else seems to want to,” Marco added for effect. He needed his mother to stop asking questions and bringing up his dad usually worked.

  “Fine. Dinner’s in the kitchen. I’m not feeling up to eating right now, so go ahead and eat if you’re hungry. I’m going to go lie down.” Teresa took the apron off and hung it on the kitchen door before sauntering to her bedroom, her body looking tired.

  Marco felt guilty. It wasn’t her fault that things were like they were. Either his father had been killed or he’d abandoned them. Marco preferred to think he’d been killed in action to the alternative. After his conversation with Rupert, his visions of his dad’s death were no longer as a regular officer or agent but as someone who had more rank and power. He had new questions, “Did he die? If he did, how? And why did no one ever found his body?”

  Marco made a plate of rice, beans, and grabbed a protein packet. He picked at it half-heartedly as he considered what Rupert had told him about Sandro, and what Rupert had asked him to do with the data he’d given him. There wasn’t much he could do with the information about his dad, but he could do something with the microdot.

  Marco scraped the rest of the food into a small container and put it in the refrigerator. If Teresa came out and saw it in the trash, she’d ring his ear. He pulled out a slice of pizza wrapped up in a paper towel and left the kitchen.

  The stairs to his loft bedroom seemed to creak more than usual. He attempted to move quietly and not disturb his mother as she escaped to her room. She had to have heard him, but wasn’t calling out. Perhaps she’d had enough of him tonight.

  He closed his bedroom door and pulled his pants off. He turned the pocket inside out and pushed the small microdot out of where it was lodged. He needed to know what was on it as much as Rupert needed him to get it out to those it could help.

  He pulled his wooden chair over to the matching desk and slid his reader out from behind his keyboard. He put the microdot in and waited for whatever was on it to come up. A single file appeared that read ‘To Send’. Marco touched it and it opened two documents.

  The first one read ‘Science Report’ and the second ‘Science Data’. He touched the file and a ten page report appeared in front of him. As he scrolled through the pages reading the headings, his breathing changed. Summary, History, Current Issues, Future Issues, Possible Solutions, Actions Taken, Cover Ups.

  He jumped back up to read the section on current issues and saw that the earthquakes in Southern Allegiance were just an example of what was happening in all the areas with tectonic plates. The future issues section didn’t look better. Things would only get worse at the rate they were going.

  He needed to know if there was information being withheld from the citizens in Southern Allegiance. He skipped to the end of the report to read the section on cover-ups. Marco read about the restrictions placed on every person who had any legal information of the issue. The non-disclosure agreements were meant to be enforced. Anyone with information had been reminded of this and threatened with treatment as traitors and criminals if they violated the agreements.

  He thought about what he and Alexis had gathered and wasn’t surprised. What he’d done with Alexis was minor compared to this. This was more than just his region. It dealt with all the regions from the World Consensus level. UniCorps and the World Consensus had no intention of telling the truth. He wondered what their end game was, if they were willing to risk millions of lives to avoid the costs of relocating people. He felt the knot form in his stomach as the feeling crept in that he was missing something important.

  ***

  Rupert planned to spend a few days on the mainland before heading home. Unfortunately, Teresa said it might be a week before Locan could make a special trip home, but she would still ask. It would give her an excuse to get her son home, even if it was just for a few hours.
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br />   A week was longer than he’d planned. He had to get his affairs in order back home and this whole break was only scheduled to last four weeks. At this point, he had no other way back that didn’t leave him traceable. He’d intentionally made the request midflight to get off on the mainland in the hopes that no one had updated the passenger list.

  Unfortunately, he wouldn’t know for sure unless someone called to check on him and ask why he hadn’t gotten off at his scheduled stop. He given his excuse and would use it again if necessary. He preferred not to use it again and hazard leaving a longer trail.

  Rupert checked into a small hotel that accepted lubles as payment. It was one of the few around, located at the edge of Marco’s town, where dust swirled in the Spring air, carrying with it pollen and bugs. The paint peeled from where it tried to cling over stacked stones. The windows looked as if they hadn’t been replaced in more than fifty years, and the smell of dampness wafted through the air and into his nostrils, causing him to sneeze.

  The worn carpet under his boots was stained and ragged around the edges from having more than its fair share of weary travelers. When he’d stayed in this hotel fifteen years before it was nice and comfortable, but time and circumstance had taken its toll on this old place too. He’d been in worse places and his stay here would only be a few days. He was grateful it was even an option.

  Rupert hoped that Marco was as good as he thought he might be, based on the communications he’d found. Rupert had carefully and thoroughly scrubbed those same communications off the system before leaving the ARC. No one else needed to be sullied by seeing them, not even Zura, Johan, and Mave. If all the hands were dirty, there would be no one left to clean them.