Devolution

‘NOAD MISSION,’ said the sign hanging on the wire gate suspended somehow between two thin and rusty poles.

‘So we aren’t allowed in here?’ asked Veena, ‘or doesn’t it matter what the sign says?’

‘It’s funny how they have written this sign,’ said 3 before Joshua could answer her.

‘What do you mean?’

’Look at the gap between the ‘D’ and the ‘M’’

‘So?’ said Veena puzzled.

‘What the sign really says is Noad Mission, not no admission.’

‘Get serious,’ said Veena, ‘it’s just a mistake by whoever wrote the sign. No-ad or noad-however you want to pronounce it isn’t even a word.’

Meanwhile Joshua had been quietly moving away from the gate in a straight line as though there was a fence along the perimeter. Neither 3 nor Veena could see one but they could see little sparkles like Christmas tree lights apparently hanging in the air.

Coming back to his friends, Joshua said, ‘The fence is a laser field and the only way in is to somehow get through the gate.’

Veena again swallowed the question which had formed on her tongue about why they would want to get in on the other side of the gate anyway when there was nothing there. Even allowing for the fact that it was a dark night with the moon in its first quarter, none of them could see anything on the other side of the gate. Not the faintest hint of a silhouette of any sort.

3 said, ‘What does NO-ad or Noad mean?’

Joshua quickly realized they were asking about the sign on the gate so he shifted his thoughts temporarily away from the problem of how to get through it.

‘It’s an acronym. N-O-A-D.’

‘Yes, but what does it mean?’

Newtonian Order of Advanced Devolution. Joshua wondered if he should tell them, and decided he could not. Not yet anyway. Sometimes this whole keeping secret thing really bugged him and occasionally he considered testing the threats of the final agent he had met before he left for the mission who had said that if he revealed anything-anything at all to his traveling companions, the agency would know and would punish him by turning him loose Meaning the mission was aborted and he and his friends would be stranded in hostile territory far from home and left to fend for themselves.

‘I don’t know what it means. Maybe we’ll find out once we get inside.’

Veena and 3 swapped looks of surprise at Joshua’s apparent ignorance, but decided not to press him.

‘Veena,’ said Joshua, ‘You walk to the left along the fence and look for a break and you go the other way Ted.’

‘What are you going to do?’ asked 3, unsatisfied.

Joshua had to think quickly. ‘I’m going to see if there is some way I can disable the field, even temporarily so we can get in.’

‘What! Are you an electronics expert all of a sudden?’

‘Ted, just go will you please.’

With a last suspicious and slightly resentful glare, 3 spun his hoverchair around and headed off along the perimeter of the invisible fence. He wondered what Joshua was up to considering the fact that, of the three of them, he was the one least likely to solve computer or electrical problems. Why didn’t he just ask me to do it, wondered 3? Was he intending to go in alone? Did he already know how to disable the field?

So, thought 3, here they were in the middle of nowhere; a desolate and foreign land. Following the unnerving flight from Mumbai they had arrived in Darwin where they found the heat just as oppressive as home, but the people more friendly. Joshua confidently organized their accommodation and made plans for further travel the next morning. Veena and 3 had not protested because in truth they had nothing to complain about. They had somewhere to sleep, plenty of fresh tasty food, and time to leisurely explore the northern capitol of Australia which offered both interest and excitement for eager tourists. But now as he traveled along the perimeter of a mysterious facility in an isolated place, he put it all together in his mind and marveled at his stupidity. To be so blindly loyal to Joshua in the face of some very stark warnings about the perilous nature of this trip must qualify him as a fool.

The first disappearance of Joshua in Mumbai, his continual evasiveness, the sudden call to arms which resulted in them packing and departing in a whirlwind of desperate activity, Veena’s glaring disquiet, Joshua’s moodiness. All too weird. And then the malfunctioning of the flight attendants to add unwanted excitement to what should have been a calm and relaxing flight.

3 had heard and read a lot about Australia, and how it was the first choice destination for those still wanting to actually take overseas vacations. A truly egalitarian society with a progressive socialist government leading the world in environmental research and development. A nation staunchly independent and unswervingly neutral during the Intercontinental War. Some said it was the last paradise on Earth. It didn’t look like it from where he sat now though: nothing but flat dusty plains and aggressively hot dry wind.

Despite the questions assaulting his mind, about what the hell was going on, 3 diligently continued to search the field for any break in the pattern of lights which would indicate a gap in it. The harder he looked, the more obvious the tightly arranged pattern of lights became. At first appearing as random placements, the red pin dots were in a definite pattern and although 3 traveled slowly along the fence for twenty minutes, he found no gap, no interruption to the sequence. Stopping to think for a moment, 3 realized that the uniformity of the lights ought to make it easier to disable, not harder. Surely even Joshua could work it out. He turned and headed back to his friend.

Approaching Joshua silently from behind where he stood at the Noad Mission sign, 3 noticed him hurriedly replacing a mobile phone in the pocket of his jacket.

‘Calling for reinforcements were you Josh?’ joked 3.

Surprised, Joshua snapped at him. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Take it easy, Josh,’ said 3. ‘I had an idea about the fence and how to get through.’

‘I told you to search the perimeter and I would work out how to disable it.’

‘Well you haven’t done it yet and I couldn’t find a gap in the fence, in fact-’

‘I said I would do it. Don’t you think I can do it?’

‘What are you getting so worked up about? I’m just trying to help.’

Veena returned to find her friends coming closer together and speaking in increasingly angry tones. She stepped between them, attempting to defuse the situation.

‘I didn’t say that, Josh,’ protested 3. ‘I’m just trying to help. We’re a team aren’t we?’

‘You don’t think I’m any good and that I can’t manage on my own. In fact the both of you only came because you were worried about me. You’re here as baby-sitters, right?’

Now Veena was incensed. ‘What’s wrong with that? We’re friends, that’s what friends do, don’t they? Look out for each other. Help each other. What are you getting so mad about, Josh?’

‘So it’s you too, is it?’

Joshua stormed away from them into the darkness along the perimeter, his angry voice still carrying back to Veena and 3 in disjointed fragments. They remained, baffled by their friend’s behavior.

Three minutes later when he returned the Christmas lights had gone out, so without speaking to either of his friends Joshua unlocked the gate by swiping a pass card through a scanner, and entered the Noad Mission.

Unsure whether to follow him or not, Veena and 3 held their ground until they heard Joshua’s voice calling them in.

‘What do you think is wrong with him, Ted?’ asked Veena as he allowed her to go through the gate ahead of him.

‘It could be the pressure of the mission. He seemed as though things weren’t going the way he thought they were supposed to or that possibly he had some information which was incorrect or incomplete, or that he didn’t have any information.’

3 lowered his voice as they approached Joshua and could hear the sound of his shoes crunching the gravel path. ‘I caught him shoving his phone hastily back into his pocket when I returned from my exploration of the perimeter. Apparently he doesn’t want us to overhear any of his conversations with whoever is feeding him instructions.’

‘It could be that he was told not to allow any of those conversations to be heard.’

‘Don’t you think it’s unreasonable to be keeping us totally in the dark when we are actually risking our lives as well by being involved?’

Veena held out her hand to stop 3, then said, ‘Yes I do, Ted, but there isn’t a lot we can do about it.’

‘There’s nothing we can do about anything.’

Though it was a dark night, the path loomed brightly ahead of them as it seemed to be painted with a luminescent substance. The land to either side of the path for as far as they had walked was flat and featureless. Grassed and open it could have been a playing field except for the path running through the middle of it. Ahead, there were more trees and shrubs surrounding the path and faintly in the distance they could see the outline of a large building. Suddenly a rectangle of fluorescent light appeared in a wall of the building as a door was opened then just as suddenly disappeared after being momentarily blocked by the shape of a man.

‘Was that Josh?’ asked Veena. ‘Why isn’t he waiting for us?’

‘When are you going to stop asking questions, Veena?’

Veena turned to face 3 and said, ‘It’s a fair question isn’t it?’

3 smiled and motioned for her to continue and when they reached the end of the path they found the door closed but not locked so they pushed it open and cautiously stepped inside.

‘Should we call to him?’ asked Veena.

3 gave her a look which was simply to remind her of his previous statement.

Bathed in artificial daylight, a hallway ran straight ahead for twenty meters before ending in a T-section. There were no signs on the walls and no sounds from behind them. The noise generated by Veena’s tentative footsteps was frighteningly loud. If there was anybody in here, they definitely knew of the intruder’s presence. 3 suspected they were being watched all the way even though he could not see any surveillance cameras so they stood hesitating at the T-section with no idea which way to go or what to do or whether to call out to Joshua or not. Time stalled as tension grew and finally overwhelmed Veena.

‘Josh!’ she called. ‘Josh. Where are you?’

‘Shut up, Veena. Shut up.’

As she slumped to the floor, 3 lowered his chair and reached out to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. The lights went out. Veena screamed and 3 felt a fist blow to his stomach. It was pitch black and there was someone with them who could see them somehow.

Veena stood shakily in the darkness, groping for 3 and when she touched a back she knew it was not her friend. She ploughed her left fist into the back and heard the grunt and quick expulsion of air. Stretching out blindly again she felt the same body and struck again but immediately received a blow to the head which knocked her off balance.

‘Ted,’ she cried. ‘Are you here? Are you all right?’

No answer and before she could call again she was hit once more: this time in the stomach. Ignoring the pain, she lashed out with a sidekick which tore through empty space. She spun around and kicked again, and then a third time. All connecting with nothing. Sensing the body close to her again, Veena twisted her small frame around, arming and firing another sidekick as she did. She heard the thump of a body hitting a wall.

‘Ted! Ted!’

Veena began to whimper as she realized her friend was gone. It was no comfort to her at that moment to know that her attacker had also left and she had not been seriously injured. Her head throbbed a little and she was sweaty and breathless from the exertion and fear but otherwise she was okay. Darkness cloaked her and silence pressed her to the floor where she lay completely alone and completely exhausted.

Soon after, she felt strong hands lift her and carry her through the darkness but she lacked the will to resist.

Surrounded by four men armed with electroguns and wearing full face blast helmets, 3 regained consciousness and tried to remember what had happened. The passageway was brightly lit, featureless and silent apart from a very low hum like a computer. None of the men talked to him nor did they alter the pace of their march.

This has to be a dream, thought 3. I am being treated like a dangerous criminal when I’m just a kid really, except for the mind blast. Newtonians were famed peace lovers and generally only showed aggression under extreme provocation. Inciting a Newtonian to violence was considered by anyone with half a brain to be the act of an utter fool because of the mind blast. Focusing their tremendous mental energy into a concentrated burst of anger, Newtonians were able to fire their rage like a bullet from a gun into the head of enemy.

A mind so flooded with intense negative emotion not only felt physical pain but also debilitating fear and disorientation. The blast shields were developed to block the attacking brainwaves by first absorbing them then dispersing them and making them harmless. The mind blast was a weapon which needed to be used very judiciously because it was only good for one attack in any one hour period, and only Newtonian warriors could reproduce the surges more than twice a day. However there was the advantage that a single blast could be directed at multiple victims, which is why all four of 3’s armed escorts were wearing helmets.

Finally they reached the end of the passageway and through a double automatic door they entered a large room devoid of furniture, apart from a dining table and chairs.

A guard to his left pointed at the table and said, ‘Sit down and be quiet.’

‘I’m in a hoverchair,’ he replied, surprised at both the stupidity of the guard and the boldness of his tone. ‘Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on?’

‘I just told you to be quiet.’

‘I’d like to know what happened to my friends,’ persisted 3.

‘He’s not going to shut up,’ said another guard.

‘Spray him again,’ said a third.

‘Answer my question and I’ll be quiet,’ said 3. ‘Are my friends-’

With a quick squirt from a small cylinder, fine, odorless mist drifted into his nose and mouth before he could finish speaking and 3 was instantly asleep again.

When he came to, 3 wanted to talk again immediately but thought better of it. Besides he was now beginning to dehydrate and his tongue was swelling inside the dry cave of his mouth. As he listened he heard one guard talking.

‘He is unconscious...yes, he’s fine...It’s just that when he’s awake he keeps talking...’ then he looked at 3 and said, ‘He’s awake now actually...yes, he isn’t armed or carrying implants of any kind...all right...yes sir...yes.’

‘We are to release him somewhere outside the compound in exactly one hour from now. Maintain the absolute minimum communication with him and with each other.’

‘Won’t he come straight back and bring the authorities with him?’

‘No,’ said the first guard who received orders from the unseen boss. ‘He won’t return. Ever.’

‘How can you be sure of that?’

Annoyed by the childish questioning, the first guard pulled out a small cylinder from his pocket and threatened the other man with it. ‘If you don’t shut up and simply do what you are told, I’ll put you to sleep with our little chatterbox friend here.’

‘Just asking a question boss, that’s all. Take it easy.’

The man in charge spoke directly to 3. ‘We’re letting you go now. We’ll take you outside the compound and release you. If you try to get back in we’ll kill you.’

3 wondered how they would know if he, or anyone tried to get inside when he and Josh and Veena had apparently not had any trouble getting in undetected until they were actually inside the building. Then he remembered Joshua speaking secretly on the phone when he had returned from his little journey along the perimeter fence.

‘We saw all three of you come to the outside fence,’ continued the man partly answering 3’s unspoken question, ‘and we watched you walk all the way in. We let you in the first time but the next time you will be terminated. Believe me.’

3 believed him. This so called adventure with Joshua and Veena was only five days old but already way more than he had bargained for. Swirling somewhere in the back of his mind were pleasant memories of a very near past where he went to school and lived comfortably in a loving and caring family. Where evil and violent men only existed in newscasts and movies, where everything was what it appeared to be and apart from a few minor inter tribal tensions there was peace and harmony in society. How naive he had been, and how quickly those illusions had been shattered.

Now here he was alone in the middle of the Australian outback about to be released from a captivity which he did not understand the reason for but out of which he had thankfully come unharmed.

The men led 3 out of the room and down another long hallway seemingly in the opposite direction to the one they had come in on. Struggling to gain his bearings, with his immediate future unknown, he was still of the ever present, faint hum he had heard when they first entered the building. Now it grew louder as though they were heading for it.

Turning a corner they were suddenly confronted with a single door. The chief kidnapper leaned forward to have his eyes scanned and the door opened with a series of high pitched beeps. They proceeded through the door and out into a vast grassed area which 3 thought he recognized from the walk in, but had to acknowledge to himself that he still could have been anywhere, possibly on the other side of the compound. Beginning its overcoming of the night, a new morning was creeping into the sky but the moon still held sway in the fresh and clear air of a new dawn.

At the perimeter fence, the gate was unlocked and one of the guards gestured for 3 to go ahead but he hesitated.

‘What are you waiting for?’ asked the guard. ‘You’re free to go.’

As 3 slid slowly through the gate the leader warned him for a final time, ‘Remember do not return here and do not tell anyone else to come here. Consider your life young Newtonian. Forget this place.’

The gate closed and the men walked hastily back down the path, leaving 3 free as they had said. Unfortunately he had no idea where he was. Joshua had led them in and 3 had not really paid much attention to any landmarks they may have passed. Paralyzed with uncertainty and a sudden stabbing fear, 3 lowered his hover chair to the ground and sat there to wait for the day. Perhaps it would bring with it his salvation. Joshua’s faith would be very useful right now, he mused as light filled the sky.