The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League (26 page)

“It has been passed and made…Sorry.” The man named Alex shrugged apologetically.

Brad took a deep breath. “I know what this is for. It is made to house someone, but not a normal human, a Post-Human. They caught a girl in Java a little while ago when we lost Furnace. The girl was able to feel the presence of other Post-Humans at a distance.” He tapped on the screen. “This machine is temporary, I can see that. It would all work quite effectively I’d imagine, as long as the girl they are using is kept healthy. And I would put money on these scumbags mistreating her. They are not empathetic as far as Post-Humans go.” Brad pointed to a detail on the blue prints. “This box here, would hold the girl while she was hooked up to all this hardware. They could amplify her ability with chemicals and transport this machine where they wanted it. As long as they put it together in a smaller space, like a truck or van. Otherwise this could be awkward. And all they’d have to do is operate the console, here, and read the outputs on this monitor.” Brad ran his hand through his hair, his trademark gesture of frustration. “It’s clever, temporary and barbaric.”

“So the Indonesian girl, does she have a name?”

“I don’t know it. I just know she was with Furnace when the PHC took her. What else did you have here?”

The Asian man and a short blonde woman brought up some more files on their computers for Aadi and Brad to see. The first was business records for deals made by Lucas and Associates with some of the other big companies. The companies had agreed to enforce the radiation increase in their countries of origin, and all had it in their agreements that they were to concentrate the output towards Australia.

“This is strange,” said Brad.

“No,” Aadi said shaking his head, “this is how we use our tech. We have designed a system that transcends hardwired reliance. It is good, but it’s not on this scale. These waves must be converging on a focal point.”

“A point? A
receiver
?” Brad suggested.

“Yes, very likely. There would need to be more than one.”

“
People!
” Brad called to everyone in earshot. “We need to scan for anything about building receivers or transmitters of a heavy duty kind in the Melbourne area!” Several of the team put their heads down and began their search.

“My thinking is that these bastards are putting up these receivers somewhere here in Melbourne, and
if
they are here in Melbourne, they would be within a proximity that could be controlled. So there must be a central point that has control and reach. This central point will almost certainly be the point where the signal will be relayed
to
.” Brad ran his hand back through his hair as thousands of images and technical information scrolled through his brain. “It will look like a target or web formation…”

“
Got it
!” The older man named Alex held his hand in the air. “Contracts and permits for multiple receiving towers of unspecified purpose.”

Another hand shot up from a woman at a monitor. “Installation and planning permits are here. They are being erected this week. The spacing formation is as you say Sir, five towers around a central receptor.”

Brad nodded, “And the location?”

There was a moment while their computers did the work. The same woman raised her head. “Central location centres on the building occupied by Lucas and Associates.”

Brad simply nodded.

On one of the other monitors Brad was reading files on various experiments on Post-Humans in America and Africa. There were some notes on The League, but it was years old.

“Brad Lewis?”

Brad looked up to see a girl in a dark green jacket holding his mobile phone. “You had a missed call. I spoke to the girl calling you, sorry. She said she knows Sleepwalker, and that he left her a message on her phone. He is fine, he got wounded, he was just getting patched up then he’d find us.” The girl finished with a smile.

Brad rubbed at his short beard. “Thank you. I didn’t think he had run into that much trouble.”

He said, “It’s Belinda,” to Aadi who was sitting at a computer nearby, “I will ask her to join us if that is okay with you. If these people know who Athan and I are, it might lead them to Belinda, so I’d rather have her by my side.”

“As long she does not compromise our position,” Aadi said warning Brad.

“She won’t, she knows the drill, but she’s about to discover a bigger, darker world than she thought.”

“Does she have any skill she can put to use here?” Aadi asked.

“She’s studying medicine.”

Aadi nodded and thought for a moment. “If you and Sleepwalker are planning on getting involved with these DPHR people, you are going to need someone to fix your cuts and bruises. It just so happens that I am planning to set up a medical area downstairs. She will be welcome to join us my friend. Call her; she can bring some things down here for you both. This case may take a while.”

Brad took the phone from the woman so he could call Belinda. In such a short period of time their lives had changed so much. He knew that Belinda would support him through this, but he felt guilty for drawing her into this darker more dangerous world, that he had spent so long trying to avoid. She deserved a normal human life; but there wasn’t any turning back from what they knew now.

“OKAY, GENETICS.” THE strange creature from the organic underworld said as he continued to unravel everything that Athan had ever come to believe about reality. “Horus was messing with it. That’s when you guys would appear, in your many and beautiful Post-Human forms and then and change history, for better or worse. You would know many: Julius Caesar was a popular one, Alexander the Great- he could move like a cheetah, and Nostradamus was a clever one, but constant premonitions wore the guy down.” The secretary smiled and shrugged. Athan watched him blankly. “There were so many more, and most were never recognized as particularly
super
human. They stayed under the radar. Mermaids were like you, but they branched off as a sub species of humans. There were heaps, but they scared the piss out of everyone so they were killed if they didn’t keep out of sight.”

“Really? There were Mermaids?” Athan’s eyebrow was raised.

“Well yes,” the secretary said condescendingly. “’Are’ not ‘were’. You
are
naïve. Umm, yeah, so lots of Post-Humans since the birth of humans, but there was a glitch if you will, a genetic hiccup. This is where you come in.” he nodded in Athan’s direction. “Every few hundred or thousand years, it’s not regular, there would be a double.”

“Two with the same ability?” Athan said catching on.

“Yes and no.” The secretary said looking past Athan. “Oh, here you are,”

The female creature was creeping forward with a hot cup of coffee.

“Thank you.” He nodded his thanks and she said something in Spanish, nodded to the secretary and disappeared back into the crevice she had come from.

“Anyhow,” the secretary said, “the double. They called it the Gemini Anomaly, the Big Guys did. It wasn’t really a problem for a while, but then the Big Guys realized that there were times when the universe would become very taut. This would only happen in the location where the two particular beings were together. This would most notably occur between your plane and The Deep, the home of The Blind.”

“The Blind. I’ve heard of
them
, I’ve seen them. When I was in a mind that was being manipulated. The endless plane of squirming creatures and the humanoid beings standing in between like toy soldiers.” Athan nodded with wide eyes.

“Yes, I know. The way you accessed their plane is supposed to be the only way, and it should not have been as easy as it was. You were lucky to get out. That entire race of beings feed off the emotional output of humans. They connect with every mind in your realm. You understand so far? You dig?”

Athan chuckled at the casual way the strange creature was giving him the truth of the universe in such a comic way. “Yeah, I dig, and it’s creepy. Go on.”

“Yeah, they aren’t attractive like you or I. There’s nothing personable about not having a face. Anyway, the close proximity between the Gemini weakens the barrier between the dimensions, and each time the Gemini Anomaly occurs this barrier grows weaker. This particular time is worse; your counterpart has made a deal with The Blind, and he is tearing the fabric of reality to let them in for his own ends.”

“What? My what?
I’m
one of these Gemini people? Are you sure? Who is this other person? Why would they
do
that?” Athan sputtered.

In his confusion and shock Athan swallowed a hot mouthful of coffee, burning his tongue.

“Hey slow down on that coffee man,” the secretary chuckled, “I heard it gives you a guys a buzz, but damn!”

“Are you sure about all that stuff you just said? I mean…that’s a lot to take in. Not that there is anything normal about any of this.”

“Look, yes you are part of the duo of danger. Sorry about that, but that’s how it’s happening. That Merlin guy had the same concerns. This has been happening since the dawn of humanity. Some of these people have become pillars of religious worship. Nice people, but when I gave them the spiel they lost it, same as you. I thought humans were a little past being surprised by this stuff.”

“Those guys were like me?” Athan shook his head and squeezed his eyes closed.

“Well those blokes had pretty much the same ability, yeah. There are some other surprises inside you too, but you will find those when the time is right.”

Athan sat on the old wooden chair staring at the fleshy ground trying to organize his thoughts so all of this made some kind of sense.

“And the other person? My opposite?” Athan said finally.

“You’ve met him.”

“The figure in black?” Athan asked, still in shock.

He thought of the dark clad figure that had threatened him in the metaphysical landscape, the man in the white mask.

“Yep. He was the reason we had to protect the mind of Mr Campbell for you. You remember that toothy pooch?”

The bulldog-caterpillar…

“Umm…yeah, I do. Thanks, I suppose.”

“Hey, it was nothin’.” The secretary waved it off. “Those things are everywhere down here. Anyway, you need to stop that guy. He has made some strange deal, as I was saying. Those things from The Deep feed on the emotional output of human beings, and this guy has agreed to open the way for them to flood into your plane. Not only does this upset the balance and the way the universe fits together, they will be free to feed on any emotional output, not just strong emotional emanation. They will dumb humans down to drones effectively, open to suggestion and persuasion. It would take away what makes them human, their ability to choose, their imagination and their ability to truly love. And by extension that destroys our people, who rely on the power of the human mind.”

“This is crazy!” Athan took a deep breath. “How can he do this to us?”

“How? A radiation. You heard about that remember? This frequency of the Internet and mobile phone output creates the weakness in the barrier. This will open the gate and let them in. That’s the deal, you see? He lets them in, they subdue the people and then the ones he chooses become rich and powerful. The planet is theirs, or his.”

“World domination then? It’s a bit of a cliché. What is your interest in this? Why are you telling me? Why should you care?”

“I’ve told you about my people and others, Athan. These realities, dimensions, whatever you’d like to call them all coexist together. They form a balanced structure that is the foundation of the universe. If your reality is damaged, so are all the others, including mine.”

Athan nodded. “How can we stop this?”

“Kill him. Sorry for being blunt. Your friends can help you, I’m sure.” The secretary said with a shrug. “Generally we call both of the Gemini here and give them a choice, or give them the same offer. One or the other disappears. That’s the only way to effectively fix things, but your
other
has made some choices that have made him the obvious one to be eradicated.”

“Jesus.”

“Well, we gave him the same choice. They didn’t have the technology to open rifts or anything back then.” The secretary shrugged.

Athan got up and began to pace back and forth. This was all beyond anything that had ever happened to any of them. Apollo, Furnace, Cal, Whirlwind and Deadfall, they were playing at being heroes in a world where some people deserved to live without being afraid. Alternate planes of reality, Gods and races of demon emotion suckers. It felt like things were getting out of hand.

“Anything else?” Athan asked, because why not?

How could things be any worse?

“Yeah. There is something else.” The secretary made a cringe-like expression. Athan stopped still and closed his eyes.

Of course there is.

“When the Gemini are drawn together they create a disturbance in the world that other things feel.”

“Other things?”

“Other things. I believe you saw an image of some of them that your spy friend showed you.”

Athan remembered the still from the film footage Aadi had shown them. “The pale junkies biting that person in the subway?”

“Not junkies, Athan. These are things that share your world, but rarely do you hear about them. Shadow Folk and cabalus. They are genetic mistakes and experiments by the Big Guys. By your Gods.”

“Like Post-Humans?”

“Not quite. They pre-date the Post-Humans and the Gemini Anomaly. This realm was a playground for the big guys you see? They are beyond feeble planes of reality and worlds and races. They transcend it. They made all of us.”

“So they
are
Gods?” Athan suggested getting confused again.

“The idea of Gods means nothing. It’s a word a frightened race made when things got dark and they needed hope. These are beings that have always existed, but they continuously tamper and adjust everything that is. We are all experiments and playthings for something far bigger than any of us can comprehend. And they have asked me, personally, to tell you all this, so you can fix something that is a lesson for all of us.”