Digital Venous (19 page)

Ryan was looking distressed.

“He’ll be okay,” said Alia. “The Napean head’s not as thick as ours, that’s all…”

Alia, Wez, and Bes went down with a buggy to collect Claire. Madi stayed back with Ryan and watched over Shane, still lying on the floor. Madi tried to talk to Shane: “Listen, your son is one of us now…”

Shane, still with eyes closed said quietly, “He’s my son. He’s a Napean.”

Napean Prisoner

MADI HAD QUITE a task trying to explain to Ryan the “politics” of the situation. The boy couldn’t reconcile the two different pictures he had of his father: good guy and bad guy. He loved his father but this new man was a mystery. He liked the mystery.

The others took Claire’s body to the morgue in Stirling. She had no surviving family to contact but, as a well-known teacher, there would be many wishing to pay their respects.

It was nearly impossible for the group to have Shane under their roof. But it soon became apparent that hatred would have to be put aside for the sake of the boy.

Ryan wouldn’t leave his father’s side. When told to go to bed, he refused, thinking that more harm would come to his father.

Bes tried to help: “You must sleep, little man. Tomorrow’s a really big day—we have to make a lot of important decisions…”

“About what?”

“Well, the other Napeans don’t know much about the things you’ve helped us to find out; we have to decide what we are going to do.”

“What’s going to happen to Dad?”

“He’s going to stay here with us for now. We hope he’s going to be on our side and that he won’t try and hurt us again. Now, come on, let’s get you into bed.”

“Thanks, T,” said Madi.

The next day Shane seemed to be fine. Ryan awoke early and was already in questioning his father about everything. As soon as they were up, the women had breakfast and went in to talk to Shane, who was now upright on the couch.

Alia said, “I want you to relay a message to the rest of Napea…”

Shane replied, “I don’t think I can. We’re too far down. There needs to be a relay point for connection.”

“Try,” said Alia.

Shane activated IN and used his tongue on the roof of his mouth to navigate across to the ETP section of his iris to make contact.

“I can’t,” he said. “We’re just too far…”

“We’ll just have to move you closer to the surface. Wez, who’s home at yours?”

“No one, I don’t think… but it’s a mess …”

“Oh, shut up,” said Alia, smiling. “Let’s go.”

“Can I have my weapon back?” asked Shane.

“What a good idea,” said Alia. “Wez, you’ve got a new toy,” she said, handing Wez the bolt gun.

In Orbit

THE THREE SERVICEMEN sat in a darkened room in the docking station in orbit over the Napean city. They were using a function of the network and ETP which allowed them to inhabit a virtual space. They were able to follow each other’s train of thought, examine myriad documents and view images, simultaneously: all without lifting a finger or even batting an eyelid. It was the practical application of the idea that three brains are better than one.

Jeffery:
Wing’s been loyal and effective but he is wayward. A number of decisions demonstrate an increased level self importance. View the record…

Pato:
His last point of contact was at a Blackwood relay point—he was using ETP—multiple messages trying to contact someone called Ryan.

Jeffery:
Yes but not in the usual way.

Magellan:
What does that mean; not in the usual way?

Jeffery was alleging something more serious:
If you want to find someone specific you go to contact and check your list. Similarly if there’s someone you wish to meet you leave the calling card. He was wandering around in Roam looking for this Ryan…

Pato
: Maybe he was trying to divert attention.

Jeffery
: Wait a minute, yes here it is—the son was called Ryan…

Magellan:
It’s simply not possible for him to be contacting a non Napean on the ETP network. It says here Wing used a grief program called ‘afterlife’ where one can contact departed loved ones. That has already explained his irregular use of ETP.

Pato:
The son received therapy.

Magellan:
So?

Pato:
how does the child maintain his blood without update.

Magellan:
We’ve been through this before—it’s done in exactly the same way. Male to male; female to female. A Napean can update another just by giving refreshed blood. It’s enough—it works.

Pato:
But does the son have an ID number or access?

Magellan:
of course not—the number of people using the system does not change; any difference in volume would be obvious.

Jeffery:
True enough. But then, organic telepathy?

Pato:
It would explain the record of unidentified action on the network... and we’ve lost how many guards now?

Jeffery:
Being killed for their eyes you think?

Magellan:
Conjecture: Subs kill guards—they don’t need a reason.

Jeffery:
We know but the point remains, parts of the network have been altered and rearranged, without any reference to a user.

Magellan:
It was just a glitch Jeffery—it’s a huge international system…

Jeffery
: …with only a handful of users. And foreigners don’t use our hex area of the data bank. Wing has been operating outside all acceptable parameters for a long time now. His time has come. You let him and his son go. He’s obviously gone against all protocol, left Napea to find his son.

Magellan:
That’s not true. He was…is on a covert mission to find the female terrorist unit. Reputedly, the same group responsible for the last major network virus and other crimes... he was getting very close.

Jeffery:
Not close enough. We end his tenure now.

Pato:
Agreed. A valuable resource but… arrogant, unpredictable; a bad combination.

Magellan:
Yet he knows everything about the job. There’s no-one better…

Pato:
But he has no loyalty. It’s one of the many reasons we always outlawed children—they only create instability in a population.

Jeffery:
At this stage in the exit plan all we need to do is simply maintain the status quo—quell hysteria. We don’t want radical change now.

Magellan disagreed:
You call it instability but are you sure these are small isolated problems?

Jeffery was firm:
There are similar problems in some of the American cities—we’ve just been too soft…

Pato:
…And this is the thanks we get.

Jeffery continued:
All our attention needs to be focused on selecting the transportation colony and fleet engineering. There’s no time for any more of this nonsense. On this occasion the majority has it. Bring in the Wing.

Magellan relented:
You’re both sure?

Jeffery sensed victory:
And the son… if he encounters an accident in the meantime—such is life. I can’t imagine what inspired such leniency in the first instance… Wing’s had five years to sort out this rebel problem. It’s time.

Interrogation

AT THE WOMEN’S house, Shane was being interrogated. They sat in the main room, the knives and guns out on the table like salt and pepper. Madi sat with an arm resting on a Glock G22, a handgun hundreds of years old for which they’d managed to secure a huge quantity of ammunition. Bes scraped the palm of her hand with the blade of an old hunting knife.

Alia pulled up a chair and sat directly in front of Shane at eye level. “Who’s your superior?”

“I only know him as Magellan,” said Shane.

“Magellan? What sort of a name is that?” said Bes. Alia glanced toward Bes briefly before continuing.

“Have you ever met him?”

“No.”

“Well how have you been in contact with him?”

“We do everything using ETP.”

“ETP only?” asked Alia. “Correct,” answered Shane.

“What do you see when you’re talking on ETP? Do you see the person?” asked Madi. “No, but you get a complete sense of who they are without… you feel like you see them and you…”

Alia was getting frustrated with the interruptions and asked the two women: “May I?”

“Hey, I…” shrugged Bes.

“Yeah, go for it,” agreed Madi.

“Thank you. Now, what have you heard about the space program?”

“I don’t get any information like that. As far as I know we’re still searching for an Earth-like planet to settle,” said Shane.

“You know about the space ship waiting up there? And that there’s another CME predicted in six months?”

Shane’s eyebrows raised slightly hearing this. “No.” He seemed genuinely surprised. Alia continued. “The Service are planning on leaving Earth, soon; they haven’t told

anyone that there are only ten thousand seats. They’re going to leave most of you precious Napeans behind to burn. They’re telling you nothing. They’re giving you nothing. You need to stand up for yourself. Like we are.” Shane was clearly shocked by all this news.

“What do you know?” asked Alia.

“I’m a guard—I look after Napea and the Subs coming in and going out. That’s my job.”

“Now I consider that to be lying because you came down here…” Alia was stopped short. “…To find my son.” interrupted Shane.

“To find us, you mean,” said Madi, shaking her head but smiling. “No.” Shane was also shaking his head.

“Don’t worry, poor old Mark’s already filled us in on both his and your job.”

“Then why, if you know all the answers, are you questioning me? I’m a guard. I’m not a Service official. ”

“I guess I had hoped that maybe, now that you’ve been disillusioned as to the truth, you might change your point of view,” said Alia.

“What? Swap sides, you mean?” said Shane.

“Ryan needs you; we need you… we found a huge file on you outlining all your misdemeanors…” Alia left the information hanging.

“Oh yes… and…?” asked Alia.

“The Service seems to have documented a lot about your various crimes, your corruption.”

“They document everything. All allegations—true or false,” said Shane calmly.

“And now you’re down here—with the enemy,” said Bes, always looking for the creepy angle.

“Join,” said Madi.

“I can’t. As soon as I fall asleep, they’re in my head; they can snuff me out like a candle.”

“Well, isn’t it true what you said? They can’t reach you underground, through all this solid rock?” asked Alia, tilting her head to one side, looking at the ceiling.

“Yes, but you’re all at risk. This whole place is at risk. Blackwood, Belair, Stirling, Crafers, Picadilly, and Greenhill—goodnight all. They’re here now. They’re looking for me now.”

“Not if we get them first,” said Alia, standing up.

Shane’s eyes followed her. “It’s not the Napeans. It’s the Service—they’re the real gods. We’re their creatures.”

“We’ve thought of all that,” said Alia with a smile.

“We can’t broadcast internationally—our network is completely isolated.” Shane was beginning to show some signs of exasperation.

“We don’t need to go international—you contact Magellan and tell him what we intend to pass on to the Napean population. It may worry them, don’t you think, Shane?”

“It may,” said Shane, unconvinced.

The Statement

SHANE WAS MOVED to Wez’s house, much closer to the surface, so he could relay his message to Magellan. As they went in through Wez’s front door they noticed real people come running round the bend, panicking and yelling, “Guards! Guards!” Rushing to get off the street and into their homes.

“Shut the door!” said Wez, “There’s a safe room!”

Inside the front door, the rough hewn rock wall of the hallway concealed a hidden latch. Wez lifted away a brick size rock to reveal the lever. Pulling it released a trapdoor in the ceiling from which a thin metal ladder was revealed. Wez used a rod that came down on top of the trapdoor to release a catch on the ladder. A thin tunnel had been cut through the rock and from this slid the bottom half of the ladder, which extended to within a few feet from the ground.

The four of them squeezed up through the hole. Wez used the rod to pull the ladder back up and then closed the trapdoor.”

“We must be close now,” said Shane. “It is. Five meters of rock.”

“You guys realize that whether I’m held against my will or not, it’s a security breach—the Service will be trying to kill me now. They’ll find me—as soon as I transmit they’ll find me.”

“If you get this message to Magellan, they will change their point of view. You’ll still have a job.”

Magellan had been waiting, expecting him.   Shane: I’m going to read a statement from the Subs.

Magellan: That would be Alia Bokovski and company. Where are you?

Shane began reading: “We’re in trouble. I’ve been down below. I’m only alive because of what I can tell you. You must do as I say. Withdraw all Napean guards from the underworld. The group of Subs we knew to be planning an attack have been through all of the Service data: star system files, planet files, your six-month CME prediction, your lack of preparedness…”

“Go Shane,” said Alia smiling. Shane continued, “The spacecraft only being able to transport twenty percent of the population, the problem of N.E.T. physiology reversal… they’ve even read my records—they know everything. They are in contact—internationally. Publication of this information will cause a disruption the likes of which we have not seen since the virus. Pull out the guards. Now.”

Magellan spoke to Jeffery and Pato. Pato posted the information so that in seconds Laos, Ulan Bator, Beijng, Tokyo, and all of North and South American Service could listen in.

Shane continued, reading Alia’s statement, “The real people want all stolen children or any other children in Napea to be taken to the Stirling base for assessment. They want you to announce that you have closed the life center so that no one can be killed for coming forward...”

At that moment they heard an explosion from the street outside. “Keep going,” said Alia quickly.

Shane read. “You need to make this promise. Also, that the wishes of all children will be respected in regard to where they want to live.”

From directly under them, the sound of many feet entering Wez’s house could be heard. “They’re in,” said Wez.

“Oh my God,” said Bes, looking downward. “They’ve found us!” She put her hand over her mouth. Shane, too, had stopped reading.

“Keep going!” said Alia.

“Real parents need to know what had happened to their children. From the surrounding underground townships we know there to be at least a hundred and fifty children under the age of

fifteen. Send them all forward.”

The sound of voices and feet marching in and out of the house had subsided. Shane read on.

“We also know, prior to that, in the last century, there have been some two hundred babies stolen.

If they are still alive, they must come forward now without fear, to register.

All other Napeans, including guards and officials, are to stay home.

If our children remain missing and unaccounted for we will shut down your city and put an end to the aspirations of the Napean population. You remain at our mercy on this, so please, send the children to the coliseum building, at the southeast of the city.

All children are to come forward by themselves. No other Napeans are to come out of their houses until further notice.”

Shane’s message ended. His words had been heard by Service officials worldwide.