THE FOREVER GENE (THE SCIONS OF EARTH Book 1) (8 page)

Good grief, now he was making up lurid theories himself!

He finished his coffee and began his walk back to the Factory.  A cool wind was now blowing in from the Charles River and swirls of dry autumn leaves arranged and re-arranged themselves around his feet.  He shrugged on his overcoat.

"They are not our friends," said a deep voice at his elbow. He looked round and saw that a bearded young man was walking alongside him, matching his pace.  He had forgotten about the protesters and hadn't noticed that they had spread out across the common.  Feigning polite interest, he took the leaflet that was being offered to him.  "DON'T TRUST THEM," it began in large red letters.  Below the heading was a rather evil-looking caricature of Ambassador Ba.  Startled, he shot a quick glance at the protester, wondering for a moment whether his conversation with the ambassador had somehow been overheard.

"Join us, before it's too late," said the young man, and walked away to spread his message to other pedestrians.

David glanced at the rest of the leaflet as he hurried off the common.  A group calling itself DOPE (Defenders of Planet Earth) warned that Ambassador Ba and his companions were an advance party preparing the way for an invasion of Earth.  Citing a number of unexplained incidents as evidence, DOPE wanted the world's governments to demand that the Faerie Folk leave the planet immediately.

Their movement was aptly named, he thought unkindly.  He looked around for a trash bin, but there were none close by.  He folded the leaflet and slipped it into his coat pocket.  The wind was stronger in the confined spaces between the buildings along Franklin Street and he pulled his overcoat closed, turning up the collar to keep the wind off his neck.

Deep in thought, he ignored everyone at the Factory, except for Heidi of course, until he stepped out of the chute at the ninth floor.

He asked Penelope to call the connection recorded on his 'link to confirm the invitation, and watched her eyes grow large as she was put through to Translator Vi of the Faerie Folk.

Three days later, he, Pris and Chunky boarded an airbus to Bangkok.  Whenever he flew, he was thankful for the demise of the dreadful passenger airlines he remembered from his youth.  Mercifully, the cramped seats, miniscule luggage compartments, re-cycled air, and plastic food were a thing of the past.  During the financial crises of the early part of the century, most of the airlines had gone bankrupt.  The ever increasing cost of fuel, of manufacturing new aircraft, and of maintaining massive airports, eventually put the price of air travel out of reach of all but the most affluent.

The crisis was resolved by the development of the air-vortex propulsion system; the use of pressurized air to move, lift or propel large objects.  The technology was so successful it was now found in everything from elevator chutes to cranes, and even in the new breed of environmentally friendly motor vehicles.  To take advantage of the new technology the aircraft industry completely re-vamped its aircraft design.  Out went the sleek, but impractically heavy, metal airplane and in came the much larger, more spacious airbus, shaped like a flat-bottomed dirigible and constructed chiefly of light-weight carbon-fibre.

The engines which powered the air-vortex were much smaller than the massive jet engines carried by the airplane and used a fraction of the fuel.  Able to hover on a cushion of air, an airbus could take off and land vertically and had no need of long runways and expensive landing facilities.  All the new craft needed was a landing pod; a flat-topped little structure with a retractable roof.  The world's airports had no choice but to convert, and any that thought they could continue to charge exorbitant landing fees and airport taxes were smartly put out of business when the airlines simply built their own landing pods nearby.

The new means of air travel was also much safer.  The optimum cruising altitude of the airbus was much lower than that of the airplane.  The latter was faster and more fuel efficient at higher altitudes, whereas the former thrived where the air was denser.  Being closer to the ground, it was able to deploy parachutes and float to safety if its air-vortex ever failed.

Airbus travel was slower, but the longer flights were made infinitely more bearable by the on-board amenities; dining cabins, gymnasiums, shower cubicles, and bed-seats.

Bangkok International Airport, a fraction of the size it once was before the advent of the airbus, was still one of the busiest in the world.  Long established as the gateway to South East Asia, the presence of the Faerie Folk and their inaugural hard-water housing project in the city had attracted a wave of visitors.  Tourists rubbed shoulders with business executives and foreign government representatives, all intent on investigating the potential of the new technology.

David and Pris watched from one of the many view-ports in the dining cabin as their airbus floated across the airfield.  Chunky had finished a work-out in the gym and was taking a shower.  The pilots selected a vacant landing pod and settled the airbus gently onto its roof.  As it powered down, the passengers retrieved their luggage from the spacious storage compartments underneath their bed-seats and made their way to the chute deck.  The retractable roof of the pod slid aside and extendable elevator chutes slid noiselessly from the belly of the airbus to the floor of the spacious reception hall.

David and Pris waited for Chunky to join them and then stepped into a chute.  When they stepped out again a few seconds later, it was like diving into a pool of warm water.  The pleasantly cool temperature of Boston had been preserved throughout the flight by the air-conditioning system of the airbus.  The pod was also air-conditioned, but once its roof was retracted it was open to the heat and humidity of one of the world's hottest cities.  Although Thailand was heading into what passes for its winter months, daily temperatures regularly approached forty degrees centigrade.  Already warm and flushed from his work-out, Chunky was instantly drenched and, within a few minutes, even Pris was wiping beads of sweat from her brow.

They wafted their hands over one of the numerous fingerprint readers around the hall and walked through the security scanners at the exits.  Since the Personet had brought about the demise of all restrictions on international trade, there was no longer any need for complex customs procedures and most nations were content with simply recording a visitor's arrival and scanning for drugs and weapons.

They caught the shuttle to Bangkok's central transport hub and found themselves caught up in a sea of people.  Not content with being one of the world's hottest cities, Bangkok was also one of its most populous.  David and Chunky couldn't help but marvel at the multitude of transport options available and Pris was instantly impressed by the generally cheerful disposition of the Thai people.  Even those who seemed to be living on the streets in squalor beamed a welcome to the visitors passing by. The 'land of smiles' certainly lived up to its reputation.

Oblivious to the jovial atmosphere, David and Chunky began complaining vociferously about the crowds, the heat, the noise, the smell, and the dubious quality of the vehicles available for hire.  When their carping showed no signs of abating, Pris threw up her hands in disgust and hopped onto the back of the most filthy, dilapidated vehicle she could see.

"You can't be serious," Chunky whined as the driver enthusiastically tossed their luggage aboard.  "I can't even work out what this thing is".

"When did you become such an old fart?" she responded witheringly, and refused to be persuaded to exchange her choice for something better.

David gave in first and clambered onto one of the hard wooden benches on the open-topped back of the vehicle.  He looked around for some kind of seatbelt or hand-hold but could see nothing of the sort.  He consoled himself with the thought that the ancient looking contraption couldn't possibly move fast enough to be dangerous.

"Come on, get in," he said to Chunky.  "If it breaks down we can transfer to something else."

Chunky reluctantly pulled himself aboard, and was almost flung straight off again as the vehicle took off like a bat out of hell.  David hung on to his seat for dear life and Pris shrieked, whether in terror or delight he couldn't tell.  Had he not kept his eyes closed for most of the journey he would probably have been impressed by the skill with which the driver was able to hurl the taxi-cab through heavy traffic without ever seeming to slow down.  He tried not to wonder about the reliability of its brakes and how it would stop when, or if, it reached their hotel.

After what seemed an eternity, they reached the Baiyoke Sky, an eighty-eight storey marvel towering above the dense smog of downtown Bangkok.  With a sideways skidding motion, assisted by a minor collision with another dilapidated vehicle already double-parked at the kerb, the cab lurched to a halt.

Giddy with relief, David paid the driver twice the agreed fare while Chunky handed their luggage down to a bellboy, dressed in shabby livery, who promptly began hauling it down the street away from the hotel.

Chunky leapt down with a shout, and then looked on in amazement as two more bellboys, dressed in much smarter livery, raced out of the hotel and ran after the first bellboy.  Retrieving the luggage and dragging it unceremoniously up the front steps, they explained in broken English that the other bellboy had intended to take them to a rival hotel and persuade them to book in there. But the Americans need not worry; the bellboys of the Baiyoke Sky were faster and stronger than any other bellboys and would never allow them to be taken to an inferior hotel.  They ushered David, Chunky and Pris into the gleaming, refreshingly cool, foyer of the hotel.  There they were welcomed by the reception manager, a dapper Thai man with a seemingly permanent grin on his face.

After they had waved their hands over the check-in reader, the bellboys took them to their suites.  An extremely powerful chute whisked them to the seventy-first floor at such speed that David's head was spinning when they stepped out of the chute and walked down a corridor. One of the bellboys let Chunky into his room, and David and Pris followed the other further down the passage.  He showed them into a beautifully furnished suite; a large combined bedroom and sitting room, with a state of the art AVIC in one corner, and elegant sunken bath in another.  With exaggerated care, the bellboy placed their now battered and dusty luggage within an ornate closet and, after maximising his tip by reminding David of his earlier bravery, left them in peace.

Exhilarated by the morning's events, Pris lay down on the bed and dissolved into a fit of giggles.  David had to laugh, too.

"Do you think that fight over the luggage was genuine?  It seemed to be very well choreographed if you ask me," he said when their laughter had subsided.

"Did you see the reception manager?  I think that smile is permanently tattooed onto his face!"

"What about Chunky's face when he saw the first bellboy making off with our luggage?"

As if on cue, Chunky walked in, and stood bemused as David and Pris broke down laughing at the sight of him.

"That does it," he muttered, "I'm never travelling with you two again."

David left Pris to mollify her brother and activated the AVIC.  He waited for it to connect to his 'link and then checked for messages.  There were two, one from Penelope asking whether they had arrived safely, and the other from Ambassador Ba inviting them to a meeting at the rooftop restaurant of the Baiyoke Sky that evening.  David wondered about the choice of venue, surely there would be bedlam when the Faerie Folk walked into a restaurant?  He accepted the invitation and then instructed Penelope not to contact him with anything other than a dire emergency.

They spent the afternoon browsing through the Pratunam Market, a lively shopping experience spread over several downtown city blocks.  They found that it sold almost anything they could imagine, and even a few things they couldn't.  Later, the three of them dressed smartly and made their way to the revolving deck on the roof of the hotel.  The aptly named Sky Restaurant was packed with diners, but when David identified himself the maître d' immediately seated them at a cordoned off table.

For a while, there was no sign of the ambassador and David was beginning to wonder if the whole thing had been a figment of his imagination.  He was about to activate his 'link to check for messages when Chunky spotted a small hover-copter flying towards the hotel.  It banked to the right, the sound of its rotors muffled by the thick windows of the building.  It passed out of sight and the sound ceased.  None of the patrons seemed to take any notice and David gathered that the arrival of dignitaries by 'copter was commonplace.

What wasn't commonplace was the sight of two tall, slim beings from another galaxy following the maître d' between the tables.  There was a brief dip in the level of conversation and a smattering of applause from some of the diners, but that was the extent of the reaction.  It seemed that, in Bangkok, such exotic sights merited no more response than that.

David and Chunky sprang to their feet as the Faerie Folk approached their table.

"Good evening, Dr Herald," said the slightly taller of the two figures, briefly inclining his head to the left.  "May I introduce you to Analyst Ko."

Having seen them many times in the media, David wasn't expecting to be intimidated by the creatures.  But, up close, their imposing height and flat, alien features gave them a startling presence.  David's mouth had suddenly gone dry, and Pris and Chunky found themselves speechless.