“This is Tabula Rasa approach. How can we be of service, flight tango-tango-five?” The female voice stood in stark contrast to the rising turmoil in Malin.
“We have two civilians for delivery and are four minutes from destination. We are being followed by ground based tracking radar. At least two, immediately requesting assistance.”
The angry beeping from the warning lamp continued and filled the cabin with howling sounds.
The radio was silent for two seconds.
“Stand-by, help is on the way. One minute.”
The pilots looked at each other and the unrest grew within Malin.
“I hope they do not shoot within a minute then.” André said acidly.
Malin retook her tight grip of the armrests, leaned forward and began her controlled breathing.
* * *
One kilometer down and seven kilometers away from the helicopter, a heavily built man held a portable rocket over his shoulder. The rocket was heavy, but he carried it out without visible effort. He stood on a small hill in the rugged landscape, and a faint, warm wind came from the east over the surrounding area. Fine-grained sand was driven in front of the wind and slowly glided over his shoes.
The powerful man held the launcher with both hands and supported himself with one foot up on a stone in front of him. The rocket was the latest model from Bofors. Laser Guided. High-precision, capable of firing a rocket more than three times the speed of sound flashing toward its target.
“You have them?” A slim, thin man with horned eye glasses next to the powerful spoke while pushing a phone against his ear.
The powerful man nodded briefly.
“Yes, I have them. Eight kilometers. I shoot?”
His gaze followed the helicopter moving across the sky. The man with the glasses shook his head.
“Wait. Awaiting confirmation from the other team. Standby.”
Seconds dragged by. The powerful man smiled for himself. The goal was in sight. Clear. It was impossible to miss. His heart rate increased.
“Confirm?” the bespectacled man spoke into his phone and was silent for a few seconds and then nodded. He held the back of the phone and looked at his companion, whose eyes sparkled with expectation.
“Okay. Take them. Shoot.”
The powerful man nodded imperceptibly, clutching the warm, metallic weapon hard in his hands and gently squeezed the trigger.
*
Disko Bay, Greenland
2048-12-26
Fate breathed down his neck. Jonathan Jarl's legs burned as he exhausted approached the end of the winding stone staircase and he slipped and struck his ankle against one of the hard, crooked steps. The wound, high on his left arm, burned like fire. Thick blood pulsed from it and his right hand pressed on it to stop the bleeding.
The wound was not long but it was deep. Raddick's knife had almost penetrated all the way into the bone. He clenched his teeth and pulled the belt out of his pants. Quickly he strapped the belt above the wound, just over the biceps muscle and pulled hard.
Small stars in all colors of the rainbow flashed before his eyes. He stumbled when the pain flashed through his arm and he clenched his teeth not to scream. The contaminated rain lashed down and rattled against the stone steps. He tried to avoid getting the rain in his mouth but it was difficult. He turned around and looked down the stairs where he came from. Shadows moved and he could sense two men moving upwards. There was no time to hide.
He looked around. The stone staircase had led him up to a small ledge on the top of a hill. The hill was on a cape north of Rodebay in Disko Bay on Greenland's west coast where Jonathan and his partner, Eric, had located and managed to steal back an antique artifact that contained a unique astrological calendar. It had been his first real mission to repatriate the stolen antique that Raddick and his team had stolen. Jonathan and Eric had traced Raddick to a warehouse just outside Rodebay in Greenland.
During the night they had broken in and found the antique that they brought with them. The mission was successful, but their escape had been discovered by Raddick who had unexpectedly returned to the warehouse when they fled. Raddick had thrown a knife who hit Jonathan's arm and Eric had bashed a wrench into Raddick's head and they expected him to pass out but it seemed to only make him angry.
It was terrifying. That blow would have made any normal person to pass out but for Raddick it seemed as a mosquito bite. Eric bashed him again, harder, and when Raddick finally stumbling went down on his knees, they had fled but Raddick had recovered fast and went after them. Raddick had thrown another knife that had hit Eric in the back. Jonathan saw in his mind how Eric’s mouth had opened in a soundless scream and how he had fallen down dead.
Jonathan looked out over the bay and saw a shapeless darkness. The rain poured down and the sky was broken apart by heavy lightning. The dirty rain was mixed with the sweat from his forehead and came into his eyes. A faint nausea rose within and he did not know if it was because of the rain or his injury that affected him or a combination of both.
Raddick's voice was heard more closely now. He came running up the stairs closely followed by his partner. A sting of fear crept up within Jonathan and he was struggling to not let the panic take over. He slipped on the wet stone floor, stopped and spun around. All his muscles were tense to the breaking point. The pulse roared in his ears, and although he was exhausted, his senses were on high alert. The tall Raddick came up on the ledge, his partner a second later.
Jonathan saw that Raddick had a deep gash on one side of his head just above the ear where Eric had hit him and the blood ran down his ear to the throat. The wet, dark hair was mixed with blood and turned into a disgusting sludge. But despite his injuries, Raddick was a formidable opponent. His well-trained, iron hard physique gave him an aura of invincibility and a shiver went through Jonathan.
Next to Raddick stood a smaller but heavily built man with the longest arms Jonathan had ever seen. They went down to his knees and resembled a gorillas. The hands were as powerful, armored and the fingers looked like small, thick steel hooks. The man's face was rough and hard and had a nose that seemed to have been broken numerous times. A thick scar on his cheek twisted his face so it looked like a sadistic clowns.
The three men stood silently and studying each other. Raddick gave a sign to the powerful man and they both began to move away from each other in a semicircle while looking at Jonathan.
Raddick stared at Jonathan.
“You bastard. Give me the disc now and I'll kill you quickly.” His voice dripped with contempt.
Jonathan did not answer. Instinctively, his hand was pulled to the inner pocket and checked that the disc was still there. It was. He had not come this far only to give it back.
Raddick took a step forward and a knife flashed in his hand. It was a hunting knife with a blade that was little more than ten centimeters long, and along the top of the blade was a serrated edge. Jonathan saw that Raddick was used to fighting with a knife. There was a soft, panther-like flow in his movements that for the untrained eye was hard to detect but Jonathan had seen men such as Raddick fight before. When you had survived a couple of knife fights you had a newfound respect for what damage a knife could do.
“Give it to me. Give it to me now, and I’ll do it quickly.” Repeated Raddick.
Jonathan gave a crooked smile.
“Do you promise? Do you swear?”
Raddick’s eyes gleamed with evil.
“You do not know what pain is. But if that's how you want it, I'll be happy to show you.”
Raddick gently stroked with the knife in the air in front of him. The rain whipped down and the water dropped from the tip of the knife that hovered in front of Jonathan. His brain was racing. He had to get Raddick off balance, had to agitate him so he made a mistake, otherwise it was over for him.
“Come on, you're too slow.” His voice was slow, each word slipped out of him with so much contempt he could muster. He moved backwards while Raddick and the ot
her moved towards him to catch him right between them.
“You bastard,” Raddick repeated “You're going to die.”
“Stop talking about it and just and do it.”
The powerful man had moved in an arc around Jonathan and Jonathan was now almost in the middle of Raddick and the powerful man. They stood silent and tense. Like prey and predators. The rain came hard into Jonathan's eyes and he blinked to get rid of it. His body was light, as if he at any second would levitate from the ground and fly away.
Jonathan took a step to the right, pretended to slip, and tensed his body like a spring. As on a given command the two men rushed at him. He quickly spun around and grabbed Raddick's knife hand and pulled it upwards. He used his right leg as a pivot and hit Raddick's arm as hard as he could.
Behind them, the stronger man rushed forward to grab Jonathan's head with his thick arms. The man's powerful fingers slipped over Jonathan's neck while Jonathan pushed Raddick's hand to the side and up. Hard. The knife sunk deep into the powerful man's chest. The powerful man coughed and the heavy body slumped towards Jonathan's back. Thick blood sprayed over him when the man's lung was punctured.
*
Tabula Rasa, Madagascar.
2048-12-26
The chaos in the little cockpit accelerated. The sharp sound and the angry flashing of the lamp continued to cut through the helicopter. Malin stared terrified at Denver. His eyes were big and surprised, and he gasped.
“What’s happening?”
Before she could answer, the co-pilot shouted.
“We have a missile after us. Just behind us.” André said surprisingly calmly.
“Mayday, mayday - we are being fired upon” he looked down at the dashboard, “Seven seconds to impact.”
Far below them, the missile screamed over the sky with a deafening roar. In less than eight seconds, it would consume the distance between itself and the helicopter. The two kilograms of high explosives together with the five thousand small bullets of tungsten which was packed into the warhead, guaranteed that even if it missed its target, the bullets would perforate everything within a hundred meters’ radius when it exploded.
“One more! Dive, dive! Activate countermeasures!” André shouted loudly into the microphone while giving full throttle and pushing the control stick forward and the helicopter pointed the nose steeply downward and dived.
The Co-pilot pushed the buttons for countermeasures and thousands of small mirror-coated bullets sprayed out of the airframe. Their task was to confuse the rockets that approached them.
Diagonally below them, the two rockets hurled towards them. Within five seconds the first one would reach them. A violent suction in her stomach when the helicopter dived, made Malin almost vomit and she held her breath. The ground was approaching alarmingly fast and filled the cockpit window in front of her. The two pilots were working frantically to escape the rockets that were after them.
“Malin!”
Denver shouted her name and she turned towards him. A wild and terrified face stared back at her. His eyes prayed. Praying for escaping this terrible moment that had happened so fast. The fear in her struck with full force and the panic screamed within her but she couldn’t do anything. She sat there, strapped and at the mercy of the pilots' skills.
“Two seconds!” André yanked hard on the control stick and the helicopter braced against the air and turned sharply. As a shiny silver arrow, the helicopter heaved from its descent and rose quickly until it almost rose vertically. Malin thought it seemed like she was locked up in a living creature that struggled to survive and it tried as quickly as possible to steer away from the wolves behind them. She closed her eyes and saw her uncle.
Five hundred meters behind, the rockets continued straight towards them at a furious speed. They had the helicopter clearly in sight and the small mirror balls had not deceived them. The casing of the rockets were several hundred degrees hot due to the air friction even in the few seconds they flew. They were designed to withstand the heating without effort and the rocket engine consumed several kilograms of highly concentrated solid fuel every second.
* * *
Six kilometers away, a black painted combat helicopter followed what happened. The pilot in it pressed a button and a laser weapon folded itself out just below the nose of the advanced combat helicopter and the pilot typed in some commands on a screen. A sophisticated guiding system followed the roaring rockets and their journey towards the light blue helicopter. The laser aimed with millimeter precision against one rocket and burned a hole in the rockets outer casing. Half a second later, the rocket lost its steering ability and was destroyed in a violent explosion.
* * *
“It's gone!” André pointed at the radar screen and turned his head to get a better view. He could see a cloud just behind them and just below it the second rocket was coming. He yelled and made the sign of the cross.
“Here comes the next one!”
* * *
Six kilometers away, the black dressed pilot repeated his actions and the second rocket disappeared in a deafening explosion.
* * *
Malin and Denver was numbly sitting in their seats. Malin had barely understood what happened. She had heard both explosions and it sounded like they were just outside. André checked his instruments.
“Tango-tango-five. This is four-nine. Over.”
His eyes stung but he ignored the pain.
“This is tango-tango-five. Who is this?”
“Flight four-nine here. We’re from Tabula and heard that you were in trouble.”
A couple of seconds pause.
“Both missiles are destroyed. No more threats detected.”
André pressed the button.
“Thanks for the help, it's really appreciated. It was really the last second.”
“No worries, mate. Yes, it was tight, but everything is ok now.”
In Malin's shoulders, the cramp slowly released its grip. Her heart gradually began to pump blood around her body again and she felt light-headed. Her shirt was soaking wet with sweat, and she looked over toward Denver. He stared out the window and firmly held on to the seat in front of him.
“Oh my God.” She whispered.
Denver took her hand and his voice was whispering too.
“Yeah. Really.”
“It was close. A few more seconds, we would’ve been dead.”
André changed course and put the helicopter on a straight course toward Tabula Rasa. He confirmed that there were no more threats in the area. Malin and Denver looked at each other and both of them thanked their lucky star that they had survived. Slowly, both Malin's and Denver's pulse returned to normal, and Denver could let go of his clutched grip on the seat. Malin leaned forward.
“Have you experienced this before?” Her voice was still shaky, but she fought hard to get it under control.
“Yes, a couple of times actually. There are pirates and robbers along the coast that lives on attacking both ships and flights to Tabula Rasa. It has been less common.” André smiled at Malin while continuing.
“In recent years, however, staff from Tabula Rasa have conducted regular clean-up operations along the flight routes used to minimize the threat and I really thought they had succeeded. But when we get back to Tabula Rasa we’ll report back that they are not done with their work.”
Denver had followed the discussion and leaned forward.
“So you mean there is special staff at Tabula Rasa who get out and clean up?” he paused, “By the way, what do you mean by “cleaning up”?”
André laughed.
“Just as it sounds. They send out teams assigned to clear an area of pirates, villains and other riffraff. You know, shoot first and ask questions later.”
He gave a thumbs up and Denver nodded doubtfully. Denver glanced over at Malin and they looked uncertainly at each other. Less than five minutes later André pointed forward.
“There it is, Tabula Rasa.”
Bo
th Malin and Denver leaned forward in their seats and looked out at the destination of their trip. A spectacular sight unfolded in front of them. Malin blinked a couple of times as she had difficulty absorbing the size of their destination. She stared wide-eyed.
“Oh my God, how big it is.” she said quietly.
In front of her stood the three largest pyramid-like structures she had seen in her life. They were like the pyramids of Egypt, though in far larger scale. The pyramids reached several hundred meters up in the air and the sun shined on its surface so Malin had to protect her eyes with her hands for not to get blinded. She could not see if the pyramids were covered with glass, but the reflection made her squint. André laughed and smiled at her.
“Yes, it's usually people's first reaction. It's a little different to experience Tabula Rasa in reality than to see it on a picture” he paused, “Impressive, right?”
The three pyramids were placed in each corner in a triangle where each pyramid marked one of the tips. Malin estimated the height of each of the pyramids to over one kilometer. A number of different craft circled in the air like flies around an elephant. She looked down on to the side and saw two runways that cut through the surrounding jungle. Denver sat speechless next to Malin.
“Yes, that's amazing. Imagine building something that big. How many people live there?”
André thought about it.
“Just over a million was the last I heard. They usually talk about an increase of between fifty and one hundred thousand per year in population.”
Malin blinked.
“One hundred thousand? Will you double the amount of people within ten years?” She could hardly hide her surprise. “There must be complete chaos in there in that case. How can you manage such a powerful population increase? Is there even physical space to accommodate such an increase of people?”
Tabula Rasa Page 2