The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League (14 page)

“Is this the same guy? The Bringer of the Endtimes?” Athan nodded to the screen.

Brad shrugged. “The character has been written about since the beginning, but it may not be an actual person. As far as I’ve seen it is simply a symbol of change.” Brad rubbed at his short beard. “Unless someone is using this symbol as their identity.”

“He spoke to me too, Brad. He knew me, by name, and he knew about The League. He said he had been hunting us.” Athan sat back and sipped again. “He said I’ve been
Undoing all of our hard work.”

Brad raised his brows. “
Our
, there is more than one, or an organization. Do you think he could be part of the kidnapping?”

“I’m fairly sure of it.”

Brad nodded. “Well, it looks like we are dealing with a harsh chap. He’s obviously a human if he is coordinating this with other people. And they are operating in our world, not your metaphysical one. He is human or Post-Human. Most likely the latter.”

Athan nodded.

“He attacked me, and he threw one hell of a punch. Said he was going to kill me, so I bolted.” Athan prodded at his face where it still stung. “I didn’t want to battle to the death or anything. I wasn’t entirely sure who or what he was.”

“Sound move,” Brad said. “Using repressed memories to entomb someone in an infinite loop of their own self-loathing, that’s evil genius stuff. And how did he and his friends get these particular people to start with, given their social roles?”

“Social roles?”

“Yes. International corporate representation, social psychology, Fair Trade… I bet the guys in the first list you were given are just as big. Do you have it?” Brad cleared the screen and brought up a search menu.

“Umm…no, but I remember the names,” Athan said, searching his brain.

“They were at two different Melbourne hospitals,” Athan muttered as he tried to remember.

“What were the others doing in a Ballarat hospital? They clearly didn’t have business here, they were city big shots.”

“Andrew Campbell, Mary Killroy, Donald Stakes and Anton Netsche. They were all different scenarios except for Campbell. His was the one with the dad’s guitar and killing the cat, which I saw twice. And Li and Kallet both shared the one with the dog.”

“Right,” Brad said as he typed and scanned text. “Killroy is in marketing, high up, British. Mr Stakes is…advanced IT, communications and so on. So is Campbell. And Netsche is radiology, robotics, experimental science…quite a veteran in technology pushes.”

“This seems a bit coincidental,” Athan said shaking his head.

“It is also too much of a coincidence that this has happened,” Brad pointed to a section in the text.

After returning from a three month business trip Mr Donald Stakes, IT developer in Melbourne, New York and Beijing, was brutally stabbed by youths at the airport carpark…

Brad nodded to another section. “And this…”

Ms Kendra Thompson found dead today from suspected drug overdose, in a dilapidated house that police raided today…

Brad typed more names into his search, and they both looked in shock as they noticed people that Athan had been freeing were simply disappearing. Mary Killroy got as far as Heathrow in London before dying in a taxi accident.

“It looks as if someone is cleaning up their mess. This is some kind of big time criminal activity, and you have got yourself caught up in it, Athan.”

“Cleaning up a mess. That’s what the Bringer of the End Times said. Shit. It’s like The League all over again. The drama the intrigue, the high stakes… I forgot how fun the crime fighting business was,” Athan said rubbing his temples.

Brad sat back and nodded.

Silent, with glazed eyes.

He was thinking again.

“I wonder how high it goes?” Brad said finally.

Athan grunted, a response which got Brad’s attention. He watched the way Athan rubbed at the sides of his head.

“You never used to be affected by your mind hopping, Sleepwalker. How long have been suffering from those headaches?”

Athan shrugged. “About as long as I’ve been messing around in the minds of these coma patients, I guess.”

“These may be linked. Maybe extracting people from comas is affecting you.”

“There’s something else Brad.” Athan sat forward. “James Kallett. I questioned him after I got him out. He had a subconscious scenario the same as David Li and he told me wasn’t trapped in a memory. He remembered being at work before he woke up in hospital.”

Brad rubbed at his short beard while looking thoughtful. “So you think that these scenarios are synthetic?” He began to enter new words into the search bar on his computer.

“Well, yeah, I guess so, but is that even possible? To craft a subconscious entrapment that masquerades as a repressed memory?” Athan drained his mug and set it back on the coffee table. “Hard core.”

“I’m searching now. I haven’t heard of it before, but you never know. The Internet is very big,” Brad said as he frantically typed away.

“Do you expect to find something helpful on the Internet?”

Brad shrugged. “This isn’t just the Internet. This is a search engine that can bypass any firewall and can explore any hard drive that is in a device with Internet access. It is called Shadownet. The people I got it from made me jump through hoops, but it’s worth it.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“A man named Caesar, at Ledbrook Tech.” Brad typed and scanned text again.

“Not familiar to me,” Athan said taking off his shoes and getting comfortable.

Brad shrugged. “Nor to anyone really. That’s why I had to earn his trust first.”

The search loaded and Brad scrolled down the column of text.

“Here! There was some experimentation in this area, not entirely the same, from the sixties and seventies. It looks as if it was linked to the influence of hallucinogens and psychedelics. Then it appears again after the Vietnam War with experimentation with antipsychotics, trauma and some hallucinogens. After that it was reduced to whispers of government experimentation on controlled populations in Third World countries. The last ten years it has been totally under the radar, but suspected. This is interesting…” Brad trailed off.

“What?” Athan asked.

“Three names are mentioned at various times; names you are acquainted with. Anton Netsche, David Li and Mary Killroy. They are fairly spread out over a period of about forty years, but this fits. The puzzle is beginning to come together.” Brad smiled widely.

Athan strained to read the text on the screen from the lounge. “Wow, okay this is getting crazy. Mind control and stuff, creepy.”

“There could be a chance then, that there is a link between your headaches and these patients,” Brad said smiling and nodding toward the screen.

“Yeah?”

Why is he so excited when he reads bad news?

“These people are tied to this experimental research. Synthetic memory is not listed, but would not have been overlooked during their testing.”

“Why are they the ones winding up in hospitals unconscious with mind tampering?” Athan sat back into the lounge and rubbed at the sides of his head again.

“My friend, maybe these headaches of yours are a side effect or residue from the tampering?” Brad suggested. “It is a possibility Athan, and the only one I can think of, besides a run of the mill headache.”

Athan shrugged and looked at the columns of text on the screen again.

“Wait! Look here!” he pointed it out.

…and was attended by a number of different experts and analysts in the field of psychology and psychiatry as well as recognized psychics and mediums for different perspectives and some additional tests. These experts were drawn from a worldwide pool that spanned as far as Denmark, Turkey and Australia.

“Could they have consulted our old mate Dan in this? This is nineteen seventy eight, he would have had a career working with the police by then, he would have been ‘recognised’.” Athan looked to Brad for confirmation.

Bradly nodded slowly and stared at the text on the screen. “Dan Dangerous has more to do with this mess than he let on. He’d seen the deeper realm and ‘The Blind’ at some stage during his career, and that’s the reason why he didn’t want to search for guilt in the minds of the murder suspects. Maybe that wasn’t
all
; maybe this is when he saw the things that frightened him out of working for the police. He was involved in some seriously messy mind penetrating experimentation, and I don’t think these psychics were brought in just for perspectives or expert opinions. People don’t believe in this stuff, or they don’t want to. The only reason they would have been gathering people like this is if they were working on something new, or something they didn’t understand. Science doesn’t acknowledge psychics as professionals.” Brad took a deep breath. “These people were meddling with human minds in a very dangerous way. I’m guessing that they were experimenting on Post-Human minds as well. And I bet Daniel Carl knows a lot more about what’s going on than he told you.”

“I think you might be right,” Athan agreed.

“I think Mr Carl deserves a second visit. I’m coming with you this time,” Brad said as he got up from the computer.

Athan was surprised that Brad wanted leave his little hideaway, but he nodded his head in agreement.

Brad didn’t want feel like he was on the outside of something this big.

FOR THE SECOND time Athan pushed his way through an unkempt garden to get to the old wooden front door of Daniel Carl, AKA Dan Dangerous.

He knocked loudly, to make sure the old man had heard. “Hello? Dan?”

There was no answer.

“Maybe he has run away after all,” Brad said as he tried to peer into a window. Athan stood on the step with his head tilted, breathing deeply.

“Or he is refusing to answer. He’s been here today, I can tell that much,” Athan said closing his eyes.

“How?”

“I can sort of feel him,” Athan said turning around and concentrating. “He has a mental discharge, like he’s been leaking water.”

Brad raised his brow. “I didn’t know your abilities gave you that kind of insight.”

“Well, mostly they don’t, but this guy, he’s leaving a trail like a snail. I don’t know why, I didn’t see it earlier. Maybe that’s why he tries not to move far from the house. He can probably see it himself.” Athan looked about the garden. “So if he left the house…”

“He would have left a trail.” Brad finished. They both walked around the house getting wet feet as they trudged through grass.

The back door gave them a clue; it was the same kind of residue that Athan had picked up on at the front door.

“He went down here, to the creek,” Athan said as they picked their way down an old track.

And there he was.

Daniel Carl sat on an old tree stump beside the creek with a little fishing rod in his hand. He nearly fell off when he saw the two men marching down the dirt path.

“Mr Harper? You’re back. You scared the crap out of me!” Dan said.

“I doubt that,” Athan said smiling. “You left some very interesting parts out of your story, Mr Carl, parts we need to hear. I brought a friend. This is Brad Lewis.”

“Like us, I noticed. Another guy from The League, eh?” Dan smiled and nodded, impressed. “How have I earned the pleasure of your company?”

“We have got ourselves mixed up in something big old man, and you are either part of it, or you know about it. We noticed that you took a little international trip in ‘78. What were you doing in Utah?” Brad asked, not wasting any time.

“Straight ta the point. I respect that. But ya talk funny. You English or somethin?”

Brad ran his hand back through his shoulder length hair. “Call it a disability, Mr Carl.”

“Hmm?” Dan frowned.

“What happened in Utah in 1978?” Athan interrupted.

Dan turned to stare off into the creek watching the water trickle past. It wasn’t a very wide body of water, only a couple of metres wide, and there were reeds on either side except in a short space where Dan was fishing.

“I cut the reeds out so I could chuck a line in here. It’s a nice spot; quiet. There are a few fish. I’ve caught some little reddies, but the young bloke who grew up next door said his grandpa used to get a decent trout or two out of it. No such luck for me yet.”

Athan settled himself down on the ground in a dry spot, and waited for the old man to get to the point.

Dan took a deep breath. “The Seventies were good to me. I was finally making some coin and I got girls, despite the fact that people were skeptical of my talents. They gave me some respect.” He glanced at Athan before he stared at the flowing water. “I was a big-shot homicide psychic. They were going to make a TV series based on the cases I worked on, but they decided it wouldn’t have got the ratings. Now days though, there are so many of those
true events
police medium TV shows. My story has been shelved or binned by now.” He shook his head. “They’d never be able to track me down anyway.” He began to wind in his fishing line. “Buggers stole the bait again. We know they’re down there, that’s the important thing.”

He felt about in a little margarine container and produced a few worms that he threaded onto the hook before dropping his line back in.

“’78,” he continued, “was like the climax of the movie of my ‘life story’. I had just finished with a case in the Adelaide Hills, when I was approached by a psychologist of some sort about the work they were doing with new technology in the U.S.A. I was a bit arrogant at the time, I was a bit of a celebrity, and this looked like my big break. They’d see how great I was at being a homicide psychic and they’d offer me work all over the States. Of course I said yes. I went with this bloke all the way to Salt Lake City, then out into the desert where they were doing the work with new tech.”

“Area 51?” Athan said surprised.

“Umm…I don’t know.” Dan shrugged. “We weren’t there long. We flew to China straight away. Couldn’t tell you where in China, but all of us felt like we were getting a bit of a raw deal. We were a little suspicious.”

“There were more? Psychics, civilians or scientists?” Brad queried.