Devolution

Watching them leave Joshua’s house, and enter his vehicle, he had listened as they talked of their plans and had heard every word. He followed them along the freeway, into the eastern gate parking station, entering directly behind them, and had his transport parked beside Joshua’s.

Waiting a few minutes to allow them to get into the elevator and make the descent without him, he took the lift down to shuttle link 4, and casually entered the terminal, taking a seat in the row of benches, along the center of the terminal. The transit police ignored him as he feigned interest in a document he pulled from his briefcase.

Checking his watch with the clock on the VDU, he stood as the shuttle arrived quietly from the black hole of one of a dozen tunnels which criss-crossed the city’s underworld.

Again careful to allow the trio to board the shuttle before him, he quickly slid between the fast closing doors and walked past them to take a seat at the rear of the shuttle’s lead carriage. Then he buried his head in some more official looking papers as the shuttle began its ten minute journey to city central sector 7.

He was the eyes and ears of Gareth Masterman.

‘He’s only expecting me so why don’t you guys hang back until I’ve had a chance to talk to him,’ said Joshua as they exited the elevator from shuttle link 4 city central sector 7 and stepped out onto Ganjam St.

The street was alive with bustling crowds of humanity, from vagrants dressed in dirty suits and shoes with holes in them, to businessman in brand new designer smart-suits. Woman and children from all the tribes milled about like ants, some with intention others aimlessly. Rich aromas floated in the air enticing people to the countless fine food vendors up and down Ganjam Street. A steady noise, a hum of activity surrounded the milieu, as 3 and Veena agreed and allowed Joshua to walk on ahead of them.

’Do you really want to do this?” asked 3.

‘Do you?’

‘I asked first.’

‘Don’t be a baby Ted.’

They kept their eyes on Joshua who was now about twenty meters in front of them.

‘Wait,’ said 3. ‘That looks like the guy.’

‘Where?’ asked Veena straining to see over the heads of the people in front. 3 merely hovered a little higher for a perfect view.

‘There’s a park bench on the other side of the street, opposite Ravishastra, can you see it?’

‘I can see the Ravishastra sign but not the bench.’

As she strained to see through the crowd Veena caught the shoulder of a burly man urgently pushing his way along the sidewalk. The impact swung her around into the path of another person; a tall slim man who also ignored their collision and kept walking. Suddenly the crowd seemed to swell and Veena found herself pushed backwards away from 3 and towards a videophone booth. Though she was strong and fit, Veena was unable to resist the surge which seemed oddly directed at her. She lost sight of 3 intermittently as she struggled and began to call out to him against the crush and finally gasped as she was thrown hard up against the wall of the videophone booth and collapsed on the sidewalk.

3 intent on keeping his eyes on Joshua, did not hear Veena calling to him or notice her fall.

Now that he could clearly see his friend talking with a well dressed Indian man out the front of SBU bank, 3 turned his attention back to Veena and quickly realized she was nowhere in sight. He glided back towards the exit to the shuttle link 4 slowly searching for her among the crowd. Then he saw her.

‘Veena, what happened? What are you doing?’

She stood very carefully as if unsure of her leg’s ability to hold her up. ‘I don’t really know,’ she said. ‘One minute I was watching you and the next the crowd pushed me back here and I hit my head on the wall of this booth.’

3 was puzzled but once confident that Veena was not seriously hurt, also slightly amused. ‘The crowd pushed you back?’ he said. ‘What are you, a piece of paper?’

‘Someone bumped into me and I was spun around and then I collided with someone else and then there seemed to be many more people and they were all walking in the one direction; opposite to me. It was weird.’

‘Weird,’ agreed 3. ‘Come on, I’m sure Joshua has had a chance to let the carrier guy know about us. Let’s get back there.’

They made their way back towards the spot where 3 had last seen Joshua, but he didn’t seem to be there.

‘Didn’t he say the corner of Manodaya Dattapada?’ asked Veena.

‘They were here before I went back for you. Just standing and talking.’

Crossing the road to stand in the exact spot where 3 had seen them, they searched in vain. There was no sign of them and no way to tell in which direction they had gone, nor any possibility of guessing where they might have gone. This was bad and both Veena and 3 knew it without having to say so.

‘The crowd did come against me,’ said Veena, ‘or someone in the crowd to keep me away and make you have to come to look for me to leave Joshua by himself with the guy.’

‘But he wouldn’t have just gone along with him willingly. He would have mentioned us and asked to be able to tell us where he was going.’

Veena approached a vagrant who was slumped against a wall. The stench of his unwashed body invaded her nostrils and caused her to stop short of him.

‘Excuse me,’ she said loudly. ‘Excuse me.’

The vagrant slowly lifted his head and showed her two glazed and pus filled eyeballs, so she quickly moved a few paces along the street to a second more lively looking bum.

‘Excuse me did you see our friend here talking to another man in a suit a few minutes ago?’

The man smiled revealing teeth stained yellow by nicotine. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said very politely as he got to his feet, ‘but are you talking to me?’

Veena stepped back away from him as he extended his dirt caked hand to her.

‘Are you talking to me?’ he repeated. ‘Or to me?’ he said in a different voice, and then while still walking towards her with her retreating, he said in a third and distinctly feminine voice, ‘Or are you talking to me?’

3 slid in between the vagrant and Veena stopping his progress.

‘Come on Veena, let’s try down this way.’

‘Why?’ she said, not following him. ‘We have no idea which way he went.’

Stopping as if the power supply to his hoverchair was suddenly cut off, 3 spun around to face Veena who had not moved.

‘What are we going to do then?’

‘Let’s just wait,’ said Veena. ‘Give him a few minutes, maybe ten to come back and then...’

‘And then?’

‘And then I guess we should call the police, right?’

The second vagrant had come up close behind Veena as she stood talking to 3 and was just reaching out to touch her when 3 intervened. Nobody noticed another, the one with the pus filled eye also join the informal gathering.

‘Get lost!’ said 3 in a voice which was intended to frighten the bum, but sounded like a cornered and scared schoolboy. ‘Leave us alone.’

‘I thought she was talking to me’, he said as he backed away with open palms held towards them. ‘I thought she was talking to me, that’s all.’

Veena turned to add her weight to the threat. ‘I was,’ she said, ‘but not anymore.’

3 felt as though they were suspended in time as the world carried on its madness and hustle while they stood there in its midst, in silence, waiting and hoping for their friend Joshua to reappear from wherever he had disappeared. Checking his watch, 3 observed the hour hand move slightly onto the ten marking the end of the ten minutes they had agreed to wait.

‘That’s it,’ said 3, ‘we have to call the police now. He’s not coming back.’

Then a voice from the swirling crowd, ‘Where’s your faith my friend?’

‘Joshua!’ cried 3 and Veena as he emerged from a tangle of bodies to stand beside them.

‘Where have you been? Why didn’t you wait for us? We were just about to get the police. We thought you weren’t coming back.’

Joshua smiled in his easy going and soothing manner. ’I told this guy I had friends with me who also wanted to volunteer for Carrier work but he said I would have to come alone. He said that information is only given to individuals because even groups of friends have been found from past experience to be security risks. He said that after I had the information, if I still wanted to take friends with me, that’s you guys, then I could but I was not allowed to reveal to you any of the details of the assignment.

‘I asked if I could at least tell you where we were going but he said no. No information, no details.’

‘So if we go,’ began 3, ‘it will have to be with complete faith in you. Blind faith.’

Joshua nodded, still smiling.

Veena looked doubtful and was watching the crowd pretending to be engrossed in something else.

‘Veena,’ said Joshua to get her attention. ‘Can you handle that? I know how curious you are, but if you start badgering me with questions after I have explained that I can’t answer them, that’s going to create a bit of a problem, isn’t it?’

It was her turn to nod.

‘I’m going to have to ask for your word. Promise you won’t ask.’ Joshua looked from Veena to 3 and back to Veena. ‘Both of you need to promise me otherwise I’m just going to disappear on you and carry out the mission myself. I don’t want to do that. In fact the thought of having to travel to...to travel alone makes me want to quit before I even get started.’

‘Where are you traveling to?’ teased Veena.

Joshua laughed. ‘I almost blew it already. I nearly told you the destination. This is going to be difficult for me too. I don’t want to keep you two in the dark.’

The three friends stood together in a circle, silently contemplating the enormity of what they were about to do. As people bustled around them, rushing here and there desperately longing for some relief from the heat, a calmness and certainty descended on the trio and after a few minutes they looked at one another and drew closer together tightening the circle in a symbolic act of togetherness. With wordless agreement they left.

The vagrant with the pus filled eyes seemed satisfied, nodding slowly and muttering to himself as the three friends walked away. He was Gareth Masterman’s eyes and ears and had been standing right behind Joshua as he spoke his last words. He had heard enough for now and after he reported to his boss, he had another problem to take of elsewhere.