Commandos

by Madlen Namro

  talking to a tracker, he tried. Trackers were on

  Trackers were sniffer hounds, sombre men with ambiguous pasts, going to places no one else dared even look. A tracker was an assassin in the service of humanity.

  * * * *

  The space plane piloted by Jo began its careful approach to the commodore’s craft, positioning its right board against the other’s wing.

  David was already wearing his spacesuit. He knew well enough he would be the only one capable of solving the problem. He’d been involved in the plane’s design and cowritten the onboard computer’s software.

  “Are there any spare parts we can use?” Jo asked Leon.

  “No. Unfortunately the planes are too small to carry any bigger elements.”

  “Jo,” Levi cut in, “we’ve managed to narrow it down to engine failure. The emergency power backup is still working, but running out as we speak.”

  Jo glanced at David in his suit, motioning him to take it off. He was too exhausted to go out into open space.

  “There’s no point going out there. They have no repair equipment,” she said firmly, trying to discourage him from taking the risk.

  “Mechanics or automatics are not really my specialties anyway, but I do know quite a lot about computers. I helped design them and install them in this model.” David seemed quite confident. “I can re-programme the system to use the backup generator as the regular one and with the extra fuel supply they should be able to reach the base safely.” He put on his headgear and waved at Jo to open the hatch.

  “All right, David, get over here.” Leon’s voice sounded in his headphones. “We’ve got to get back to Atlantis. We have direct orders.”

  David slowly floated out of the hatch towards the commodore’s plane. Once he was onboard, the cabin got pretty crowded, but they managed and he took off the uncomfortable space suit. Levi welcomed him heartily and shook his hand, but they both knew it was not the time for longer celebrations.

  David approached the computer and logged into the system, then he started readjusting the settings.

  “And?” Jo enquired in a somewhat changed voice.

  Levi glanced at the screen instinctively.

  “David is reprogramming the system,” answered Leon with a hopeful smile.

  Despite his tiredness, the commando managed to efficiently type in the required data. The auxiliary engine begun to draw power from the main and all the equipment was gradually coming back online.

  “You all right, Jo?” David asked on the open channel. “We’re doing fine here… Leon and I…”

  But the woman was no longer listening to him. She reached into her pocked and held up the picture with Alec. Once again she gazed in disbelief at herself and the commando, whom she’d so bluntly ditched back at the base.

  “Jo. Can you hear me?” demanded David. “I’m coming back.” He was about to close his suit when he heard roaring engines and saw the com-link with Jo disengage on the screen.

  “Jo? Are you there?” They nervously tried to readjust the console connection.

  They could hear the woman’s plane fly off and the connection came back online for a moment.

  “I’m sorry,” she said and switched off for good, her ship disappearing into the distance.

  “What the hell is she doing?” David could not get his mind around what he was seeing.

  Levi calmed him down. He knew well enough what she was up to. Now he needed to explain it to David somehow.

  “Has she mentioned Magdalena?” he asked grimly.

  “She has…” David jerked at his beard. “But… But she’s not going down to her? She can’t be… Why would she?” A thousand thoughts were racing through his mind. He looked at Levi and Leon questioningly. “What on earth is going on here?” The situation had quickly become very complicated.

  “Listen, a few days ago…” Levi was visibly shattered by the whole thing. “Jo had the last five years of her life erased from memory.”

  David covered his eyes with his hands. The commodore lifted a chain from his neck and produced the access codes to Jo’s disc. He handed it to the commando.

  “That’s the access code, but I’ll never give it to her. That was the agreement.”

  “That explains a lot…” David’s face went pale and the commodore could see bitter reproach in his eyes.

  “Jo wants Magdalena to crack the disc’s protection,” Levi concluded while David was closely studying the code key.

  “Nicely done,” he said, handing it back to the commodore, “but it’s a fake. Where’s the real one?”

  “What?” Leon exclaimed in astonishment.

  “Jo doesn’t have it; otherwise, there’d be no need for a hacker.” David stressed the last sentence looking at Levi accusingly.

  “Then who does? And why?” Leon expressed the worry they all felt.

  They looked at each other in silence as the ship gradually made its way back to the base with a steady hum of the engine. Things were getting out of hand. If there was a duplicate, there must have been someone who would go to all lengths to get to know Jo’s past. All the commandos stationed on the ship knew her well enough not to need that sort of thing. Was there anyone who did not?

  “I promised Jo, even if she begged, I wouldn’t give her the key, no matter what. Not after that business with Kaminsky...” Levi reached up to wipe the sweat from his eyebrows. “We both agreed it was necessary, David. Her mental health was at stake.”

  But the man stayed silent. He wouldn’t even look at Levi. He had always believed Jo was strong enough to deal with her problems and, if the worst should happen, she still had her friends. But what kind of a friend would decide a memorial wipe was the best solution?

  “Poor Jo.” David didn’t turn to them as he spoke. He instead glanced at the screen where only a moment ago he’d seen her face. “I understand her now, this mad chase after her lost past.” He now turned to look them in the eyes. “We build our identity based on our memories. Without them, we are faceless. She’s not really after Magdalena to find her past. She needs her to understand the present, to find out who she is and what she feels.”

  As the men sat there, silent, they all realised David was right. Jo was struggling to regain her identity and she would not stop until she’d found out who she was.

  * * * *

  Looking down at the table he was sitting at, Alec purposefully extended his hands in front of him. Margaret watched him closely. She was afraid to say anything, sensing he was pondering the future that lay ahead of him. Everything was different now, ever since she’d got involved in the whole story with Jo’s memory erasure. Many people’s lives had been changed, most evidently Diana’s. Her friend was now bustling around the room while the baby slept in its cot.

  It took Alec a while to realise that Diana was packing.

  He jumped up from his seat, went towards her and grabbed her angrily by the arms.

  “What the hell are you doing?” He forced her to face him.

  “I’m going to stay at Margaret’s now… It’s for the best…” She pushed him away, ignoring the fact that Margaret was right there, watching them fight.

  “Will you think about what you’re doing! Your place is here, with me!”

  “No!” In her fury, she was shouting ever louder. “You’re a betrayer! Leave me and my child alone!”

  Diana handed her packed bag to Margaret. She then picked up her son and they both left the room, ostentatiously not looking at Alec. The doors slammed behind them.

  “Betrayer?” Alec banged his head against the wall. “What the fuck is going on here?”

  He collapsed on to his bed, exhausted, completely overwhelmed by what had happened. He was facing long hours of meditation, on himself, Diana and Jo. He had to think this all through. Maybe he should have run out and begged his wife to come back, but in all honesty, he was not really sure that was what he wanted. He realised he’d let it escalate through his own negligence, to free himself from Diana. H
e was painfully aware of the fact that he’d never really loved her. He liked her, true enough and was attracted to her physically, but life itself had put his true feelings to the test. He was now certain what it was he wanted and he was going to get it back.

  * * * *

  Her space plane was steadily drifting towards Freestation. Jo had enough water, food, fuel and weapons to secure her on her trip for a long time. She also had the disc and plenty of other things she might need.

  She had waited for this opportunity for many hours. She was initially planning to take David along, but his exhausted body could not have taken another contact with Earth and it was better that the terrorists did not have another chance at capturing him. She had decided to drop him off at the base before returning to Earth, but things had turned out differently. So far, she had been lucky.

  She could not imagine a more breathtaking sight than that of the Earth seen from two hundred kilometres. It overwhelmed every human being closing in on the miracle of creation embodied by this planet.

  As the computer knew the exact location of the Freebase station she allowed it to fly the plane towards the landing site near Old Cairo.

  The city was the last free zone remaining in that part of the world. It continued to fascinate people with both its rich history and the harsh climate, unchanged throughout the ages despite all the technological advances of the human race. In fact, technology had not influenced this place as much as it had many other cities. Since the dawn of history, the city had been a centre of political and religious authority. Now, it was one of the main areas of focus for the enemy. Great Cairo used to be a giant metropolis, a home to over twenty million people, of whom today little more than five million remained. This once great city of Africa was now being gradually destroyed by countless terrorist attacks, a problem faced by all the capital cities of the countries united under the flag of the United Nations.

  As she cut through the atmosphere, Jo began descending over the free zone of Old Cairo. She flew over the partially preserved mosque of Sultan Hassan and marvelled at the sight of the pyramid complex in the distance. These ancient structures concealed secrets unknown to anyone outside the UN military. The old Egyptian saying ‘everyone fears the time, and time fears the pyramids’ was now more true than ever.

  Jo quickly established contact with the military base of Freestation.

  “Please enter your security code,” she heard from the speakers.

  Jo punched in her identification code and a moment later was allowed to approach for landing.

  “Welcome to Freestation, Captain.”

  Jo could not stop smiling as she was one step closer to revealing the secret of her own past and identity.

  * * * *

  Alec knocked quietly at Margaret’s door and walked in hesitantly as soon as she opened it. He saw Diana feeding the baby at the back. Margaret frowned as she watched him walk up to his wife. He was going to probe her mood, hoping to find her in better spirits, but before he could speak, she broke out harshly, “I know Jo’s past. I know almost everything about the last five years of her life, her feelings and thoughts.” Diana looked deeply into her husband’s eyes. She was bluffing. She and Margaret knew perfectly well that only a fraction of Jo’s memories was uploaded before she’d stopped the process.

  “Diana…” He tried to put his arm around her. He was genuinely concerned about her, but she pushed him away. “Those procedures can be harmful, mentally,” he added.

  “You’re a bastard!” she exclaimed. “Love someone one day and cheat on her the next!” She handed the baby to Margaret. “You stopped caring for the love of your life overnight!”

  Alec did not answer. He’d never stopped loving her. That was what made this whole thing so difficult. He was completely lost for words.

  “You know what hurts the most?” she went on, shaking all over.

  “Diana, please, calm down.” He wished to somehow embrace and silence her.

  Margaret left the room discretely, taking the child with her.

  “When Jo was breaking up with you, you told her I was only a one night stand! An adventure! Some sort of a mistake! You said I never meant anything to you and a few hours later you were giving me the exact same lies!” Only now was she beginning to realise his perfidy, and this was the man she’d married.

  “Will you calm down already!” He knew he’d done wrong, but he was only human. He was not infallible. He’d often made mistakes, particularly when it came to the women he loved.

  Diana slapped Alec’s face. The pain broke him from his stupor.

  “I know one thing. You’re a liar and a cheat. Jo saw right through you and now so did I! Get the hell out of my life!”

  “We have a son.” Alec tried to pretend at least for a while longer that he cared about this marriage.

  “Yes, and that is the only thing that we still have in common. I’ve opened my eyes and I don’t want to see your face ever again!”

  Suddenly, everything began spinning in front of her eyes and then darkness engulfed her. She fainted. Alec immediately jumped to his feed, picked her up and rushed towards the hospital zone.

  * * * *

  “What do we do now, Commodore?” Leon asked. David still seemed to hold a grudge.

  “We’re returning to base. That’s what we’ve been ordered to do.” He looked down at the commando, but he would not give in so easily.

  “Let’s try to get through to Jo. We must do something!” David was strongly agitated. He had waited so long to return to the base, to his son, but now his relief was overshadowed by his concern for Jo.

  All his plans had come tumbling down.

  “I know this woman.” Levi set the course for Atlantis. “I know her well enough to know she’s probably flying over Old Cairo as we speak.”

  “But Freestation is under permanent attack by the terrorists.” David would not let them forget that even for a moment. “An air force commando, alone in that city, no terrorist would ignore a ‘treat’ like that.”

  “Especially if it’s a woman.” Levi nodded sadly, but did not alter the course. “Still, we must go back.”

  “We have to go after her!” David was not ready to accept the commodore’s decision.

  “First, we have to get back to Atlantis. They’re waiting for us. The Defence Council is going to issue our orders. They have a plan that needs to be implemented. When Jo returns, she’ll be reprimanded and stripped of her badge. At best.”

  “Kicked out of the force more likely,” Leon added.

  They knew Leon was right. Any action taken without the authorisation of the Defence Council, even as much as leaving the base, was punishable by loss of badge followed by being sent off to Earth as a civilian.

  “You’re scared.” David’s discontent with Levi’s judgement was growing even stronger. “You think they’ll take our badges as well if we follow her. Is that it, Charles?”

  “No, David. We’ll fly to Atlantis and as soon as things settle down a bit, I’ll ask a senator for the permission to fly to Freestation.” He turned back and looked at David meaningfully. He was obviously tired of discussing the same thing over and over again. “Let’s go. We’re wasting time.”

  * * * *

  The hospital ward looked grim and not very friendly. Grey, metallic, fully computerised and relatively small.

  Only several patients were being hospitalised, mostly members of commandos’ families. The soldiers themselves were usually in impeccable health. Lying on a bed, Diana was still unconscious. She was being drip fed. Her medication was also administered intravenously.

  “Anything else I should know?” a doctor asked Alec, visibly saddened by what he had already heard.

  “I don’t think so. Do you think it will be possible to erase that memory?”

  “I’m afraid not. This sort of procedure would also remove her own memories. The loss of consciousness, headaches, general aggressiveness and even depression are all typical symptoms in these sorts of
cases. It will pass eventually, but might take a while. Things just have to settle down on their own accord, as in life. Once things become more distant, we stop recalling them on a daily basis and start forgetting, getting on with our lives. Regaining mental stability takes time.”

  Alec’s reader began beeping. He put his earpiece on, lifting the small microphone to his mouth.

  “Thanks for the info. I’m coming.” He switched off the receiver. “Thank you, Doctor. I’m sorry, but I must go. Levi’s just landed.”

  He walked briskly down the base’s streets towards the landing site. He saw Leon and David in the distance, the latter hugging his son who’d wrapped his arms around his neck. The commando was kissing and cuddling the boy and the child was absolutely overjoyed. Alec walked up to Levi who saw that he was dirty and unshaven. His eyes were dark-circled and bloodshot. He was steaming with fury.

  “Where’s Jo?” he demanded, with no intention of saluting the officer.

  “She didn’t come back with us. She flew to Freestation.” Alec froze. “She was looking for Magdalena.” By telling him the truth, Levi simply wanted to cut the man to the quick.

  “For fuck’s sake! I can’t believe it! Weren’t you supposed to take care of her? What the hell! You’re telling me she set off to the very centre of terrorist activity!” Alec lost it completely.

  The two never really got on with each other, but this time the commodore decided Alec had gone too far and he would bring him to account for such obvious lack of respect.

  “And you?” He grabbed David’s arm as he tried to walk past him. “You just left her alone in that plane and waved her goodbye!”

  “You know what?” David jerked his arm out of Alec’s grasp. “Go fuck yourself!” He went on caressing his son in his arms.

  * * * *

  Jo landed safely at the Freestation airport. The plane touched down gracefully on the dirt-covered tarmac and stopped exactly where it was supposed to. She got out and marched to the commander’s quarters arrival.

  Although surprised, the Egyptians temporary stay permit and agreed to take custody of her to register her