Tabula Rasa

by Filip Forsberg

  Denver entered the bedroom and walked around the bed to Malin where she sat next to Richard. Richards’s forehead was wet of moisture and the pillow he laid on was dark and wet. His eyes were closed but his eyelids flickered. He moaned and it sounded like he was dreaming. Denver stood next to Malin and her hand reached up to him. He noticed that she reached out her hand and he took it tenderly in his own.

  “How is he doing?”

  “Not very well. He has enormous pains and that arm doesn’t look good.”

  “No. It looks like he needs to see a doctor right away to get help.”

  “Yes.”

  They were both silent. Richard continued to twist in his troublesome sleeplike condition.

  “What do we do now?”

  “I’m working on it. We need a way out of here.”

  Malin looked at him.

  “Out from the apartment?”

  “No. Out from Tabula Rasa.”

  “But that’s impossible. They know that we are here.”

  “I don’t think that they know that we have both Elisabeth and her father here. In that case they would’ve already been banging on the door.”

  Denver stood up and started walking back and forth in the bedroom.

  “Somehow, we have to get out of here. We have to find a way out that doesn’t bring any suspicion. What do you think, can we keep them hidden here until we go home the day after tomorrow?”

  Malin shook her head.

  “It’s too long. We managed dinner and I don’t think Lamm is suspecting anything but we can’t leave them here much longer while we go around here sightseeing and interviewing John Vendrick III again.” She smiled.

  They sat silently for a few minutes when a woman's weak voice was heard.

  “We have to get out of here. Help is on its way.”

  They spun around and saw Elisabeth, who looked at them from the couch with her phone in her hand.

  * * *

  Malin stood up and walked over to her. She looked dazed but seemed better.

  Malin took her hand.

  “How do you feel?”

  Elisabeth smiled weakly.

  “A little better now actually. I probably needed to sleep a little.”

  “Good.” said Malin, “it’s always impressive how different something can feel when you have slept.”

  Elisabeth returned the smile. The two women saw something in the other that made them trust each other. They quickly found each other's rhythm. Elisabeth picked up her phone.

  “Backmann has sent help to get us out of Tabula Rasa. A man named Jonathan is on his way and he is sent from the Amber group to help us.”

  Elisabeth told her about her contact with Backmann and how she had previously worked with the Amber group. Her eyes looked past Malin, toward her father, who was tucked up in the bed. Without a word she walked past Malin and went around the bed until she stood beside Denver who sat on the edge of the bed.

  “How’s my my father?” asked Elisabeth.

  Denver glanced over at Richard.

  “Not too good. He has broken one arm and has scrapes and bruises. The scrapes and the bruises are not that bad but it’s worse with his arm.”

  “How much worse?”

  Denver looked straight at Malin.

  “He needs to see a doctor as soon as possible. The arm will be infected soon and he’ll risk blood poisoning or blood clots if he is not operated.”

  Malin swallowed hard.

  “Blood poisoning or blood clot?”

  Denver had a sister who was a nurse and he had learned some about the human body throughout the years, he nodded thoughtfully.

  “Yes, it depends on how the fracture is. There is a risk that fat leaks out from within the bone marrow and that fat can cause blood clots. Or gangrene may set in. Or a thousand other things. He must get to a doctor as soon as possible.”

  Elisabeth stood silent as a statue. Malin studied her carefully and thought she could see how the gears in her brain were spinning Malin took Elisabeth gently over her shoulders and led her to an armchair in the corner. Malin sat herself on the bedside to face to her. Elisabeth pulled up the blanket around her until she was completely wrapped up.

  Elisabeth smiled weakly.

  “I have completely forgotten to say thank you.” She paused for a moment, met Malin’s eyes, “So, thank you. Thanks for all the help.”

  “No problem. We are glad to be able to help.”

  Malin was quiet. Waited. She did not want to push Elisabeth as she still seemed fragile. For some reason, Elisabeth had been almost completely panicked when Malin had wanted to call the local police in Tabula Rasa for help.

  Elizabeth struggled with whether she should tell Denver and Malin what happened. Perhaps it was best to keep it a secret, but on the other hand, both of them risked their lives for her and her father. They deserved to know. She began to speak without warning, slowly, quietly.

  “They discovered something in space that should not be there. A living sphere. They wanted to keep the discovery secret and exploit it for their own purposes and not share it with the world. That’s not right. The discovery is not theirs, it doesn’t belong to them. The discovery belongs to everyone.”

  Her voice was silent, Malin looked at her.

  “What was it that they discovered you said?”

  Elisabeth looked straight at Malin.

  “That we are not alone in the universe.”

  *

  Outside Tabula Rasa, Madagascar.

  2048-12-30

  Go with the flow that was the thought he had. Jonathan looked down at the western checkpoint at Tabula Rasa’s border and he could hear the activity there before seeing it. The cool, salty sea air was mixed with the warm, lush scent of the jungle around them. He got closer and carefully studied the passage. It might be possible to get in that way but he was not sure. It was a gamble but they had to do something. Staying here was not an option. He continued to study the surrounding.

  The checkpoint was buzzing with activity. Two large passages were built in concrete, one led traffic in and one out from Tabula Rasa. Each of the passages was as big as a four-lane highway. Small dunes of sand lay along the edge and thin veils of dust drifted irregularly through the passages.

  Jonathan shook his head. You could probably fit an ocean liner in one of them passages. A control room was located high up in the middle of the two passages and had a view of the entire area. He knew that a passenger ship a day came to the big harbor and thousands of people flocked to Tabula Rasa to try to get the permission to pass. The chances for them to get in were slim, but there were many desperate people.

  Trucks with both two and three trailers drove rhythmically out through the passage. Small trucks and cars seemed to gather in groups and drove out together when there was a hole in the rhythm of the big trucks. It was a fascinating sight. Pulsating, vehicles and people flowed in and out of the area.

  Jonathan glanced up. Tabula Rasa's pyramids loomed in the background. They were so high that the sun haze obscured the view of the top when looking up at them from the ground. He had managed to establish contact with Elisabeth inside Tabula Rasa, she had responded to his message and for that he was grateful.

  But Elisabeth had texted that there were two extra persons with her, two journalists. Jonathan was not sure how to deal with that. Maybe it was a trap? He was not sure. And anyway, he had come this far and it was not really an option to turn back now. And he had not managed to establish any contact with the agent, Paco, who had disappeared the last week. He did not answer any of the messages that Jonathan had sent. But all was in any case not pitch black. Only the fact that he managed to contact Elisabeth was positive. It was one thing that had gone right on the mission. In all plans there was an element of uncertainty. And when the plan that you laid for yourself met reality, reality used to win.

  What was worrying was that Elisabeth had written that Richard had a broken arm and that he had to get to a doctor as soon as pos
sible. They did not have much time and definitely not a possibility to visit a doctor. His mind was frantically trying to come up with a solution. Slowly he walked down the hill he stood on and then back to the old rusty truck that Silas sat in. Jonathan walked around it, opened the door to the passenger seat and jumped in.

  Silas sat silently and smoked a cigarette. Long soft wreath of smoke rose up against the ceiling and swirled around. He looked at Jonathan and raised an eyebrow.

  “And now what? Did you find any way in?”

  Jonathan frowned.

  “No, not really. It was like you said, there seems to be a lot of traffic there and many vehicles going in and out.”

  His hope shrank. The planning of his mission had been fast, maybe too fast. There were some holes in the plan and here was one of them.

  His mind was racing to find a solution. Silas broke the silence.

  “Yes, every vehicle that goes in and out must have approved permission to pass" he continued, "each passage is approved by a small transponder sitting on the car or whatever it is. And all passages must be approved in advance.”

  Hope fell further.

  “Does that mean all the vehicles, you say? Isn’t there any exception?”

  Silas shook his head.

  “No, I don’t think so. I have seen those transponders and they seem like they have strict control over every one of them. The codes that the transponders work with are updated every day” he paused, “to be honest with you, I think it will be difficult to get in using a vehicle. I actually think you have the best chance on foot.”

  Jonathan nodded thoughtfully.

  “Yes, you’re probably right about that. If there isn’t any way in with the truck, then I have to figure something else out.”

  It was a setback, but Jonathan clenched his teeth. He would have liked to get in there with the truck, it easily had enough room for two more passengers. Now he would have to figure out something else. He sat deep in thought and did not hear the phone that beeped. Silas pulled out his phone from the inside pocket and read the message. A smiled spread on his face and he pulled out an access card from his pocket and inserted it on the side of the phone, pushed a button and waited. He cleared his throat and smiled at Jonathan.

  “But fortunately I can actually help you there.” He smiled even wider and held up a small access card.

  * * *

  Jonathan left the truck and set off on foot towards the western checkpoint. He had received the updated access card from Silas and went towards that part of the checkpoint where people were moving ahead with bikes, small scooters and similar vehicles. It was a mishmash of people. He tried take it all in but the amount of people was so great that it was difficult, but he estimated that at least several hundred people were moving there. He slowly moved forward to give himself time to study the surroundings.

  To the left of the left passage for the vehicles was a similar but smaller passage. Jonathan estimated the length to just over fifty meters. Two control towers was built in the beginning and the end of it and had a clear view of the people moving in the middle. A number of armed guards moved in the crowd. Jonathan assumed they were there as a deterrent.

  Terrorism had also reached Tabula Rasa. At least two times terrorists had blown up car bombs inside the area of Tabula Rasa with several hundred dead. But in reality it was probably more times. Tabula Rasa had control over which news that were released and had for sure access to completely different information. He had heard rumors that there had been at least five separate attacks the last three years. Jonathan joined the human mass moving forward.

  * * *

  Jonathans pulse pounded in his chest and his mouth was dry. It was a gamble, he knew that, but he had to try. There were no other options. He got in to the area and saw that the concrete floor was covered by a thin layer of sand.

  He looked to the left and saw what looked like a group of red dressed monks with gold colored belts that was walking together, most of them with their arms reached out. A woman in the front of the group seemed to be the leader. She had a long pennant with a red and white flag which she constantly brought back and forth like a metronome as she constantly spoke into a microphone that reproduced the sound of the group behind her. Jonathan looked fascinated at the strange group when it moved forward. He did not know what religious belief they followed. In recent decades a myriad of new religious beliefs had emerged. Crises tended to accelerate people's inclination to believe in something.

  The crisis of faith that mankind had experienced at the beginning of the century in some parts of the world had been transformed into a violent religious awakening thirty years later. A combination of human disasters had acted as a catalyst for a revolutionary change in how people handled their faith.

  He looked up and his pulse increased. It was barely ten meters left to where they scanned the access card, he straightened up and tried to look forward. It looked like the people held up their cards against a scanner which then shone green, beeped and a boom gate opened. Armed guards stayed in the background, looking suspiciously toward the people moving forward into the Tabula Rasa.

  The group of monks approached the checkpoint in front of him and he saw them slowly moving forward. A couple of people passed and Jonathan reached the scanner and started raising his access card when he looked up. One of the guards pointed at him and Jonathan's heart rate increased. The guard turned to a colleague, said something and together the two guards moved towards him. Sweat broke out on his forehead, and he had to force himself not to start running. He looked straight at the scanner. The guards had nearly reached him when a violent roar was heard to his left.

  Jonathan could not understand what was happening, for the chaos around him exploded with furious force. He threw himself down to the ground and took cover. In the air, coming down to the ground, he turned his head and in that fraction of a second, he saw two stragglers of the group of monks had pulled out machine guns that were hidden under their clothes. The two monks cocked their weapons, knelt and opened fire.

  The shots sounded so loud that Jonathan thought that he had become deaf. As an oversized zipper that was closing the sound of the machineguns roared over the area. He looked up and saw how both of the guards that had been coming towards him were lifted up as by an invisible hand and were thrown backwards. Small red spots exploded on their clothes when the bullets smashed into their bodies.

  People screamed in panic and struggled to get away. An alarm went off and the entire area was overshadowed by flashing red lights and howling sirens. The noise was deafening and the sound tore through him. He felt with his hands against his chest and stomach. No injuries. None he could feel anyway. He spat out the sand he had gotten in his mouth when he hit the ground.

  Jonathan peeked up again and saw the two guards on the ground, shot to pieces. They laid besides each other. One could almost think that they were laying on a beach sleeping if it weren’t for the angry red spots that grew in size.

  On his left he heard how the two monks talked Malagasy with each other. Jonathan understood some words but before he fully could understand what they were talking about he saw how both ripped off their hoods and he gasped when he saw their black military uniforms under. The other monks were laying down on the ground, petrified. The woman with the pennant lay a bit by the side and touched her side where blood was oozing out. She made small whining sounds.

  A couple of seconds passed while the two black-dressed people talked to each other. Jonathan heard several shouting voices from within Tabula Rasa coming closer. He looked up at the control tower and saw several people with binoculars pointing at them, he looked over at the black-dressed people who seemed confused over what they should do now. They had nowhere to go. They could not go backwards, they were almost at the entrance and fifty meters back were they surrounded by concrete walls. Forward was the only way to go, but there were guards on their way.

  Jonathan saw now that the black-dressed persons was a man and a woman. T
hey did not seem to be old, not more than twenty-five years. The woman was the youngest and had a beautiful face but now was it sandy and dirty and a trickle of blood ran down her right cheek. Her eyes radiated determination.

  The man resembled the woman and Jonathan realized that they must be siblings. The man was a taller than the woman and his sad eyes looked tenderly at the woman. While Jonathan watched they hugged each other. The sound of the guards came closer and in slow motion, Jonathan saw how the siblings released one another and went down on their knees and turned their weapons against the storming guards. They carefully aimed and opened fire.

  The guards were more prepared now and fired back. The sound roared through the concrete passage. Jonathan had earlier thought that the passage was big but now when the violent roaring was pulsing through, the passage was too small to fit everything that was happening.

  Jonathan lifted his eyes again and saw how the bullets hit the sibling’s bodies. The woman got a shot in the head and was thrown backwards to the ground. The man screamed and stood up in rage and emptied his clip against the guards. People all around that still laid pressed to the ground screamed in terror.

  The man's body were torn to pieces in the guards' hail of bullets and fell backward and lay motionless on the ground. The guards shouted to the people to remain where they were while the guards were moving cautiously forward.

  Jonathan looked hypnotized against the shoot terrorist and, to his surprise, he saw that the man was not dead. Slowly he moved his hand down to the side and pulled something out. Jonathan could not see what it was. He heard the guards shouting and saw another salvo penetrated the man and how he died.