The Birth of Dystopia

by A. Q. Moser

  “What’s that over there?” Billy pointed out across the street next to the parking lot.

  Out of the corner of my eye, a burly man was hunched over the trunk of a car. “It could be nothing.”

  “Looks suspicious. Wait here.” Billy slipped out of the SUV leaving the key in the ignition.

  Lacking any focus, Billy used any distraction to finagle his way out of a conversation and thus did not have to finish the story between May and him. Even worse, I hope he was not intending on sabotaging the covert mission. Cadet would not like it if problems started before he had a chance to make contact with Aerial.

  Easing his way to the intersection of Ellinton and Scarlet Street to cross the road, Billy had his hands in the pockets of the pilot’s jacket and walked with a cool swagger. Every three steps, he would stop and peer over his shoulder, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. His erratic actions were less like a resident of the neighbourhood and more like a drunkard with no real direction in mind. He circled over to the position of the burly man who was spending a long time hunched over the trunk.

  Back in the opposite direction on the same sidewalk, a thin, tall figure—presumably Cadet—was strolling over to the second last shop where Aerial resided. Seeing Billy on foot near his rendezvous spot, Cadet stopped in mid-stride, tapping his earpiece as if it were malfunctioning.

  “Did I miss something?” Cadet whispered across the two-way radio.

  I held the two-way radio to my mouth and pressed a button. “March team is checking out a suspicious character.”

  Cadet scooped the area and leaned up against the shop next to Aerial’s, pretending to read his watch. “March team, tell me when everything’s okay.” He was not thrilled with the solo effort by Billy

  Right as Billy walked past the burly man, he stepped up onto his toes and attempt to peer over the man and inside the trunk.

  In a covert operation like this, danger could be just around the corner. I slipped over to the driver’s side should I need to make a quick getaway.

  The burly man straightened up and slammed the trunk down. As if caught in the act, Billy scrabbled and darted down Scarlet Street out of sight. If there was nothing there, he looked like a big fool. Confused, the burly man headed to an illuminated home across the street. From then on, nothing unusual stood out.

  “Is March team okay?” Cadet used a lower tone, unsure what whether to proceed.

  The problem seemed to have been diverted and so I picked up the two-way radio. “Coast clear. March team in place.”

  Yo-ying in his behaviour, Billy sometimes had good intentions but his delivery fell flat. The entire scene reminded me of a comedy I saw on the television where two secret agents working on the same side inadvertently met on a Café sidewalk. They try to pretend not to recognize each other and therefore not blow their covers. I chuckled at this afterthought. Eying down Scarlet Street, Billy was nowhere to be seen.

  Turning back to check on Cadet, no one was there. He had disappeared from the walkway. Did I miss something? I placed the two-way radio against my ear to listen for anything. What should I do? Where did Billy disappear too?

  Half a block down Ellinton Street, a baseball-capped individual was fast approaching the vehicle from the sidewalk side.

  “Welcome,” the two-way radio said.

  Entranced by the approaching individual, I was caught off-guard by the extra voice.

  “Hello, I was wondering if I can have a séance.” Cadet’s familiar deep voice voiced over the two-way radio.

  Figuring out that the baseball cap individual was Billy, I relaxed and settled back into the seat. He knocked on the passenger side window as if begging to be let in. I unlocked the passenger door and allowed the troublemaker inside.

  “Where did you go?” I was trying to recuperate from the little fright.

  Billy sat down, breathing a little erratic from his jog. He removed his baseball cap and opened his pilot jacket to cool off. “I … I thought somethink went down. Has communication been made with the enemy?”

  “Yes, please sit here. Welcome.” The voice belonged to Aerial. “I normally start with an ancient Latin blessing but I can see you’ve come to me with a direct purpose. I’ll be your spiritual guide to enlighten you on your journey. My name is Aerial.”

  “Yup, he’s in. The sound is crystal clear,” I explained.

  “Hello Aerial, my name is Sammy,” Cadet introduced himself.

  “Sammy!” Billy exclaimed out loud. “What a sec, that’s his real name. See I remembered. In school, we called him Screwed-up Sammy.” He looked to me and smiled as if he had uncovered the alchemist secret to producing gold.

  What a mean thing to say although Billy was one to never back down from a carefree school antic. I decided to overlook the name-calling and focus on the matter at hand. “Sammy? Why would Cadet use his real name while undercover?”

  “Anything specific you’re trying to do or reach?” Aerial inquired with the trailing sigh of a repeated question done over a million times.

  Billy shrugged off. “Beats me.”

  “It’s hard to tell, maybe you could tell me,” Cadet retorted brilliantly.

  Aerial chuckled. “I get this all the time. Let me begin by looking into your eyes. I can see many afflictions,” she confided. “You’re looking for answers that may affect others equally as well.”

  Instead of acting like it was no big deal, Cadet went all-silent on the two-way radio. If I had to guess what was going on in his mind, he was trying to be cautious with his words as if selecting them as not to give away any details of the covert operation. However, in retrospect, Aerial’s words were very general in nature and could be applied to virtually any client.

  “How much is this going to cost?” Cadet went off topic.

  “Don’t worry about prices. My rates are always fair. If you don’t like what you hear, you can leave without paying. Is that fair enough?” Aerial was matching wits with Cadet.

  “Yeah, … I guess that’s fair.” Cadet hinted at his suspicions at a set-up.

  “Sammy, I have some crucial information for you,” Aerial disclosed with an undertone. “As such, I don’t think you will be leaving without paying for something.”

  “What?” Cadet’s voice sounded started like a startled horse reacting to a loud gunshot.

  Verging on the edge of panic from the underlying meaning behind Aerial’s words, Billy and I stared at each other. Did Aerial know who Cadet was and did we walk into a trap? This scout mission was adding an unnerving tension. Deep down inside, I contemplated the idea to call out windtreat on the two-way radio and flee.

  52

  “Trust me Sammy,” Aerial requested of Cadet.

  Cadet snorted as he cleared his throat. “I don’t know whether to trust you or believe you. Maybe, in the end, they are the same thing,” he confided.

  “I’m sure in due time.” Aerial predicted with an eerie tone.

  From the passenger side of the SUV, Billy picked up the two-way radio and held it inches from his mouth. “Should I do it?” he asked, convinced of a breakdown and the need to retreat. “She knows.”

  “I’ve got to admit that I feel I should know you. Strange isn’t it?” Aerial opened.

  “Maybe we should wait as there is no definite sign of trouble,” I suggested, unsure what was to be done in this situation.

  Entranced by the ensuing discussion, Billy and I sat in the SUV glued to the two-way radio. The Aerial’s message had a strange yet intriguing undertone to it. Like dissecting a fermented pig foetus for the first time, the initial cut was difficult to handle but curiosity prevailed.

  “How so?” Cadet questioned in a deeper voice than usual.

  “I’ve got a piece of paper for you,” Aerial answered without explaining what she meant. “I jotted a note for what I’m about to disclose about you. I wrote it before you came so you can believe and trust me.”

  Reserved in nature, Aerial presented a list for Cadet in the exact
manner she had for our visit. The question was how she was getting this information. Was she simply making it up and had a stacked of lists prepared beforehand? Was there an accomplice working behind the scenes and creating the list based on a person’s character? Or was she legitimate and knew full well of her talents to predict a future course of action? So many questions.

  “May I get a peek at your beautiful work?” Cadet joked.

  “Yes in due time.” Aerial’s voice went all sweet and soft. “But first we need to talk. I’m just going to leave the paper on the table upside down.”

  “Alright,” Cadet complied.

  “Do you believe one can foresee the future?” Aerial asked.

  “What like predicting it?” Cadet questioned.

  “No, more like envisioning a future through a divine connection as if watching a TV show?” Aerial probed further.

  “Maybe it’s possible, anything is possible,” Cadet responded with a vague statement. “So what’s my future?”

  “Sammy, you’re a very direct person. Very frank.” Aerial laughed at using frank as an adjective. “I’ll tell you that your future will turn around for the better. A life changing experience. You’re on the right track. You see things that only a select few see. You may not realize this but you see like me.”

  Expecting to control the conversation, Cadet made no reply and seemed rigid in his stance. Billy and I remained transfixed to the two-way radio, listening like a world war had broken out.

  “I guess you’re getting more information than you could’ve ever imagined. Are you scared because I’m getting close?” Aerial interrogated.

  “Fear is for fools. Fools would sweat in this situation,” Cadet ironically surmised.

  “Interestingly, you’re not sweating. I’m glad you’re no fool,” Aerial complimented.

  “Get to the point, you morons.” Billy looked disgusted at the chitchat that had enveloped between the two.

  “Tell me what else you know,” Cadet encouraged Aerial as if he overheard Billy’s comment.

  “Do you want to know what my involvement is in the project?” Aerial asked.

  “In what?” Cadet questioned as if caught off guard.

  “The project.” Aerial sounded the words like it was public knowledge.

  “She knows,” Billy and I shouted in unison.

  Mentioning the word project was so out of the blue that it delivered a little sting as felt from receiving a sharp prick from a doctor’s needle. Billy and I looked at each other expecting the other to make the first move. With eyes wide open, Billy had the driven look that he wanted to shout windtreat and abandon the mission. But unlike Cadet, we were safe in the SUV from all the high drama.

  “It began with your childhood like mine,” Aerial exposed.

  “I … I don’t understand.” Cadet regrouped with a change in the demeanour in his deep voice.

  “This is freaky,” Billy advocated at his wits end.

  “Tell me about your childhood and I’ll tell you about mine,” Aerial suggested.

  “I want to know what you’re trying to get at because I’m really confused right now.” As if playing devil’s advocate, Cadet was trying to get Aerial to reveal more of what she knew.

  “Fair enough. You want to hear that you’re the sixth member of a select group,” Aerial injected flat out

  “Who told you this?” Cadet dumbfounded at Aerial’s words.

  “I know of these things just as you know of them,” Aerial said. “Don’t you understand?”

  “No, I don’t know and I don’t trust you.” Cadet’s tone of voice was deeper and bitter. “I’m leaving.”

  “Wait,” Aerial responded with a trembling shout. “Wait Sammy, please don’t leave.”

  A chair shuffled across the floor and a gust of wind swished across as a door was opened. Billy and I crouched below the window level hiding from view. Curious to see what was happening, we peered over the front window. Cadet had stormed out headlong. With a tight ponytail and long dangling earrings that sparkled under the streetlights, Aerial followed despite wearing a long cloak. Cutting across the parking lot, he took long strides to move faster away and attempt to lose Aerial in the process. Seeing she was gaining on him, he broke out into a jog until both were out of view.

  “Wait for me.” Aerial’s faint cries emitted from the two-way radio.

  I grabbed the two-way radio from Billy and held it to my ear expecting to pick up more of a signal from where I sat. The transmission just stopped.

  “Let’s go.” Billy grabbed his baseball cap, shoved me to move and then opened his door.

  “Where?” I asked, wondering if Billy decided to go see Wolfgang and May.

  “I’m goink inside.” First adjusting his baseball cap, Billy darted across the street like a belligerent drunk out for a street fight.

  I lowered the window. “Are you crazy?” Was Billy really going to break in to Aerial’s shop?

  “Watch if she comes back,” Billy screamed out as he raced inside Aerial’s unguarded shop.

  Neglecting the duty to be a lookout for Cadet, Wolfgang with his sagging pants followed Billy inside. They were taking a major risk to scope out the shop without considering the consequences. What ever happened to a group consensus and sticking to Cadet’s plan?

  Indiscreetly, a head peered out from the doorway, checking for any signs of Aerial. The head did not have a baseball cap on so I figured it was Wolfgang. The whole event seemed preposterous, people running everywhere without any direction like a headless chicken expending its last bit of energy. Should I notify May using the two-way radio? We could drive away together and leave Billy and Wolfgang to this SUV?

  Not even a full agonizing minute went by as two bodies tried to emerge from the shop’s tight doorway. Appearing to be stuck by the shoulders, their arms flayed about in some poorly coordinated dance. It was hard to make out who was who but eventually they pushed through. Wolfgang hung a right to return to the minivan while Billy sprinted across to the SUV.

  “Start the car. Start the car.” Billy ran at full stride and slid across the SUV’s hood.

  Getting the key in the ignition, I started the getaway vehicle and revved it. Just before Billy could settle in his seat, I accelerated and squealed the tires. In hindsight, this retreat made too much clamour. Billy huffed and puffed from the run. Not having done anything physically exerting but fearing being caught, my heart was pumping hard too. Cautious towards being pulled over by the police, I maintained my speed at the speed limit and I was diligent in checking the mirrors for any suspicious activity.

  “Did you find anything?” I screamed in angst.

  Billy took a deep breath to compose himself. “Yeah.” He tossed the baseball cap aside and waved a crumbled up, yellow paper in his hand.

  “What’s that?” I continued to scream, feeding off the adrenaline.

  “Wolfie, got somethink too.” Billy tried to shorten his words all the while trying to regain his composure. “Boy, was that exhilaratink.” He unfolded the yellow paper showing a giant six written with a black marker and crossed out by a red slash. “I found it on the table.”

  “What does it mean?” I tried thinking of why was this so important that Billy had to retrieve this and not an item of higher value.

  “I don’t know. Wolfie said it was Aerial’s list for Cadet.” Billy looked unsure.

  “No way.” It dawned on me what the six meant. “Aerial predicted who the sixth member was. Cadet. Remember the steamboat nightmare had six people at the lamppost. This nightmare brought us together.”

  “You mean Sammy, not Cadet.” Billy corrected me on Cadet’s real name. “I wonder why she drew a red mark over the six.”

  “Exactly as you just said. Cadet is not his real name, that’s why she put a red line through it.” I felt like I was some sort of puzzle genius unravelling one of the greatest mysteries of the world that has plagued mankind for ages.

  “Or maybe she made a mistake.” Billy held t
he paper to his face trying to discover any other cryptic messages from it.

  The excitement of uncovering a momentous mystery was absolutely undermined by the effort of trying to explain it to a skeptic like Billy. “What else did you find?” I inquired in a calmer tone.

  “Wolfie got her address e-book. The problem is its password protected so we’re gonna need a hacker to get into it. We can pull out some names and other good stuff from it that we can use.” Billy justified the break-in. “Hopefully, Cadet got away clean.” He switched topics so stylishly.

  “Yeah, I hope he’s fine.” Without any further radio communication, I hoped he managed to run away. “But I found it odd feeling how Aerial was shouting at Cadet not to leave.”

  “Who really cares about Aerial,” Billy expressed whose side he was on. “Although, we really can’t be in anymore trouble then we’re in already.” He laughed at the mere thought of our long list of illegal activities.

  Consequentially, we should be in a world of hurt and there was little to laugh at. Our investigation was leading us in too deep that it could come back to bite us. We were moving through too many extremes, kidnap and theft. Whatever happened to a fair effort to battling the injustice? Taking the noble road might be slower but in the end we could hold our heads up high.

  “What I don’t get is being a psychic by trade, Aerial should have seen this coming and prevented the break-in,” I reasoned. “One would think that a legitimate psychic would one knowing the future be able to prevent it from happening. It was like a logic puzzle, did the chicken come before the egg or the egg before the chicken? Or maybe Aerial got caught up in the moment and her emotions took over? Or maybe she just let it happen for some unknown reason? Could she?”

  Hiding his sentiments or just unaffected, Billy shrugged his shoulders like the matter was of no concern to him. The complexity of my reasoning of the matter had enough of an effect to keep the drive back quiet.

  All this deep thinking and it occurred to me that I missed out on three personal matters. It was Monday night and I was due back to work today. I already missed an entire week of work on account of the Mister Popular trial. Plus I promised to call my parents back and I missed that too. Not to mention Marie was expecting my call to let her know when she could meet Billy. I truly felt disconnected from my regular life. However, my priority was to this group. I had to fight the higher powers and stop any further damage to other children. I was a new Joel Dangal Taw, ready to fight it out to the end at any cost. This was my purpose in life.