| |
What the fuck am I doing here?
Peter awoke on the floor; the cold wood was harsh against his shoulders. His eyes scanned his current location as he tried to remember. The last clear memory was kissing Rachael. Having broken it quickly, he headed for the door...and now he was here.
He sat up and saw his dream girl slouched in a chair. Her body was facing him, but she was out like a light.
“Hey there,” he said softly.
Rachael stirred but remained asleep.
He climbed to his feet using the bench for support and went to the chair. He sat on the armrest and gently shook her shoulders. Her eyes snapped open and she tried to jump away but the opposite armrest blocked her path. In that instant, she suddenly seemed to recognize him.
“Having a bad dream, were you?” he asked.
“Don’t scare me like that.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“What happened to me?”
Rachael rubbed her eyes and patted her hair before answering. “We were on the way outside.”
“Yes.”
“When you suddenly dropped to the floor. Are your knees all right?”
“They seem fine,” Peter answered, not remembering a thing she was saying. “I passed out?” he asked.
Rachael nodded. “Out cold,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do. You can’t go to the hospital ’cause your DNA is not registered and there’s no one for me to call.”
“Who did you call?”
“I just said no one.”
“All right, Rachael,” he said, thinking it was weird to mention there was no one to call. Then the answer seemed to fly into his mouth and out the opening his lips made. “Who called you?”
“My best friend, Ami.”
“And you told her about me?” Peter got to his feet. He wasn’t ready for anyone to know he had returned yet. The world wasn’t ready for the gift he could offer through his next book. It was the promise of the wonderful gift of a continued life and the riches that would come. No one would fear death anymore. Death would become obsolete. No one must know he was here, and Rachael must be warned against her mouth.
“I didn’t say your name, only that I had a visitor and she was really happy for me.”
“I’m happy for you as well.” He looked for a clock but couldn’t see one. “What time is it?”
“Computer, what’s the time?”
“The time is zero four twenty two.”
Peter smiled. “That’s neat.” Suddenly the smile was gone. “We have to go.”
––––––––
It was nearly sunrise by the time they got outside. Rachael had suddenly needed to use the bathroom and took such a long time that Peter’s stomach cramps were returning with increasing pain. He needed blood, or more likely the dagger needed blood. He kind of felt like a vampire. From the back of his mind a thought pushed its way through. It asked, “How long are you going to be here?” It had asked a question he had no answer for. His wish to return was meant to mean a second life on the Earth, or wherever humans were when he came back.
He remembered thinking about it in the tunnel. In there he had an overwhelming urge to get his computer and publish the book he had just finished. The new book of wishes. More powerful spells and openly available to everyone. Suddenly that urge was back. He had to find the computer and find some way to make it work. He had yet to see a power outlet.
Rachael came bounding down the stairs. She had changed her clothes. She was now wearing a one-piece black skirt. It reached her knees. Over the top she wore a thin white cardigan. Her hair was set in place and she wore a little make up.
Peter was pissed off, although she did look wonderful. His dream girl. He decided not to show his anger, yet he couldn’t believe she had fucked around, knowing how important it was for him to get blood. Didn’t she realize its urgency? Without the blood to power his energy, he could pass out again or worse, he could very well die. And that would mean failure, and he couldn’t handle the thought of failing. It would be worse than going back to the time before the book found him.
He didn’t want to dwell on those painful memories and he didn’t want to show his annoyance at her, so he turned, put on his sunglasses and said, “Let’s go.”
Rachael caught up to him outside the door. She looped her arm in his and kept his fast pace.
A searing pain like a hot knife sliced through his stomach before they reached the front gate. Peter buckled and fell to his knees.
“Peter, what’s wrong?” Rachael knelt in front of him. Her hands rested gently on his shoulders.
In barely a whisper, Peter replied, “Stomach cramp.” He erected his upper half and drove a fist into the pained area. His breath shot out and he inhaled deeply. The pain dissipated. He took five more deep breaths slowly, and with Rachael’s help, got to his feet.
“Peter?” Rachael’s voice rang with concern.
“You know what I need,” he said, looking onto the street. The whole place seemed deserted, as though everyone was inside when darkness came. All the houses looked like dark rectangles. He couldn’t see a light in any window. If fact he couldn’t see windows. How was he going to get what he needed?
Rachael held out her arm to him. “Cut me,” she said.
Peter laughed.
“I’m serious. It’ll give you energy for a while longer, right?”
“I thank you for the offer,” he said weakly. “But I can’t do that, not to you. Besides which, I’m not a blood sucker.”
“I thought...”
“The dagger takes the blood, and I take the energy.”
Rachael was silent.
“Don’t feel bad. It was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
Rachael said, “Sorry.”
“You didn’t know the full story. I wouldn’t worry about it.” He looked along both sides of the street. “I need someplace where there are people, not a lot but a few.”
“We could teleport anywhere.”
Peter laughed nervously.
“They’re safe.”
“Yeah right. In the movies they are safe. Doesn’t this place have taxis?” A taxi driver would be nice, he thought.
“Taxis?” Rachael asked. “Oh, those things. No need for them. Everyone teleports.”
“I see. Then we have to walk.”
Peter swung the gate forward and turned left. He had no idea where he was going and it didn’t matter. He would find a way into someone’s house if it came to that.
Rachael kept a couple of paces behind him. Peter didn’t want her feeling bad about anything, but there wasn’t a lot he could do in his state.
He turned around to face her and said, “Lovely dress, looks really good on you.”
Instantly her face brightened. “Really?”
“Yes,” he answered and resumed walking at a fast pace.
She caught up to him but didn’t loop arms.
Peter smiled. He didn’t really think that comment would work in this time. It hadn’t worked so well in the twentieth century. But it worked with Rachael and he realized that she had wasted time just to look good for him. He no longer felt any anger or annoyance at her.
––––––––
Officer Edward Pollic the third was nearing his sixty-second birthday. And he had the worst job in the world. He spent nine hours a day staring at a holo video screen, seeing what the police officers were doing while on duty. All officers, including him, had tiny cameras attached to their retinas, so someone like him could witness, but usually sit back and watch, what was happening out there on the streets.
Twenty-five years on the force and the last eleven years in this position. His entire family had been police officers. His great grandfather had been an officer at Opera Sands at the time of the wolf attacks. That was a well-documented case history of a split personality. Edward wanted a case like that, but it had never happened.
The only place he could probably find a case like that, a case to make him famous like his great grandfather, was in Area of Lost Hope. And the police didn’t patrol that area. Hadn’t since the riot fifteen years ago. A riot which took the lower half of his left leg and landed him in this job four years later, when he returned to work.
He knew he’d never patrol the streets again and had grown accustomed to a higher credit salary. What he didn’t expect was to be pushed into a swivel chair to watch what his life could have been if that riot had never happened.
Even with the increased salary, the pain of watching what his life could’ve been was hell for the first year.
There was an upside to all of it. He wasn’t in much danger now, he still carried his trusted phaser and his wife hadn’t left him like she threatened to do many times. And the biggest upside was coming to work with his two children, Tom Pollic and Michelle Pollic, both of them fine officers.
Tom was pulling desk duty this month and Michelle was pulling a double shift to cover for her friend, which meant a rare and wonderful thing was about to happen. They would leave work and arrive home together. Luck like this did not come along every day. He knew the pride and love for his children showed openly, but he wasn’t embarrassed about it and they didn’t seem to mind, either. And to think he had almost lost them and his wife weeks before the riot happened. He was indeed a lucky man. This job wasn’t the worst thing to happen to him and neither was losing part of his leg. It was good luck disguised as bad.
Making a decision, he tapped into Linda Stone’s retina camera. She was partnered with his daughter for tonight. And with Michelle being tired from a harrowing first shift, he figured Linda would be driving. He tapped a few holo-keys and a new screen appeared on top of the previous. It would be safe to watch two screens, listening to both at the same time.
He adjusted the screen position and halved the width until the screens floated side by side.
In the left-hand screen he saw Patrick and Phillip, ‘The Two Ps,’ they were nicknamed, getting coffee at a roadside diner. What he could see from Phillip’s camera was that they were at one of the latest fashion craze diners, an old gutted two level airplane of some sort.
He wasn’t interested in that screen, but still remained alert for anything.
The screen he was interested in showed his daughter, sitting in the passenger seat of a cruiser, laughing. The view suddenly moved away from his daughter to the rearview mirror. He saw Linda’s eye reflected back. She turned her attention to the area in front on them. There were a few other cruisers in the air. He adjusted the volume to hear them speak.
At first there was a long silence, then he heard the sweet voice of his daughter. “Anyway, Phillip made a pass at me last night.”
“Did you accept it?” Linda’s voice. Ahead of her the viewpoint changed as the cruiser turned left. The air was suddenly empty.
“What’s that?” Michelle asked. Her hand suddenly came into view. She was pointing far off in the distance.
“Fighter Jets,” Linda said.
“And headed our way,” Michelle added.
Officer Pollic felt the heavy weight of worry curl up in his stomach.
“Are they ours?” Michelle again.
“Can’t tell. Too far away.”
“What shall we do?”
After a moment Linda said, “We’ll go do East area first then come back here.”
“I’ll send an emergency email.”
A few seconds later, the words ‘POSSIBLE THREAT’ flashed on the screen in bright red. It flashed on and off for a full ten seconds. It would have flashed on and off on every television, computer, net visor and billboard across the city.
There was a bright flash, harsh white light screamed through the skylight and windows, filling the room for a full second, before suddenly blinking out.
The dome was down.
And then Pollic heard a sound he thought he would never live to hear. The emergency horn. The sound was a deep, long wailing, vibrating his bones and rattling loose windowpanes. The sound of it alone was scary. But Pollic couldn’t leave the consul; he had to watch his daughter make it to safety.
In the distance, he could barely hear the sound of air fights. Nearby explosions rocked the room. Yet he could not leave. He had to see.
“Do you hear that?” Michelle’s voice.
“Guess we better head to a safety zone.” Linda looked in the rearview mirror as she said this. The fighter jets were more clearly visible. A sudden white flash surprised her and she lost control of the cruiser momentarily. “Jesus, that was close.” Linda looked up. Above her the sky was hazy, like looking at dimmed cruiser lights in a heavy fog. “The real sky’s beautiful,” she whispered.
“Oh no,” Michelle said.
Pollic’s view changed from the hazy sky, which he thought looked better with the dome’s power surging under it, to his daughter pointing to the left of her.
“Ground view,” Linda said.
The floor of the cruiser vanished. The video sight of the ground below them replaced it.
“Left, thirty-three degrees.” Michelle said.
The video camera showed a young man lying on the ground, clutching his stomach. His chin looked to be covered with blood. A woman was kneeling at his side. She looked distressed and with no idea what to do.
“I’ll mail an ambulance,” Michelle said.
“No point. No ambulance is going to make it out this far if a strike goes full force.”
“Then we have to take them in.”
Linda was looking at Michelle. Always the noble one, Pollic thought with a smile. He wished they’d hurry up.
Another explosion, much closer this time, shook dust from the ceiling. It floated down, interrupting the sight of his daughter climbing out of the now landed cruiser. He lost sight of his daughter for a moment as Linda moved slowly around the cruiser. It looked like she was moving slow, but he knew she wasn’t. She was holding a scanner. The green circle showed no blips of air traffic. Pollic suspected she was looking for more than air traffic. She was searching for the fastest route to the hospital.
“What happened?” Michelle’s voice was just audible.
“I don’t know,” the woman said. She sounded near hysterics. “He was walking and then complained of stomach pains and dropped here.”
“How long has he been bleeding?”
“I don’t know.”
Finally Linda looked up from the scanner.
Pollic was proud of his daughter. In the midst of danger such as now, she remained calm and asked all the right questions before checking him herself. He watched as...
Michelle rolled him over onto his back.
“Hi.” The man’s voice sounded fine, very happy in fact.
“Where does it hurt?”
“It doesn’t.” He grabbed her and pulled her close to him...
The sound of his daughter’s scream was painful to his ears...
“Michelle, what’s going on!?” Linda moved forward.
Michelle was slumped on the man. Slowly her body rolled off and...
Officer Pollic felt bile rush up his throat, could taste it in his mouth, and then saw it spinning through the holo screen. He’d never seen a cut like that. The gash was wide and his daughter’s neck was opened like some primary school kid’s attempt at writing the letter U.
He looked around for support or help of some sort, but for once the room was empty. And he remembered the emergency alarm. His eyes went back to the screen.
Linda had drawn her phaser. Her aim was shaky. Near the man, the bolt of electricity slammed into the fence. He looked at Linda. He looked impressed and was on his feet in a second, charging her. Linda dropped her phaser. The man never glanced at it...
For some reason, Pollic found himself watching the woman. Her blank expression told him two things. Number one, she wasn’t a hostage. Number two, she didn’t really like seeing this, but looked to have accepted it.
The lady’s face disappeared from view. He had a close up of the killer. The man looked very familiar but he couldn’t place him.
It was the eyes. There was just something about the eyes. A sparkle he should be able to place. Suddenly like lightning it came to him.
No way, Pollic thought.
But the more he stared at those eyes, so full of life and beaming with joy, the more he was convinced of who he was watching.
He had to alert everybody. Get some back up out there, maybe it’s not too late, yet.
“Computer,” he said. “Officers down. Send back up to...”
Where? Where had they gone? Damn it. He would have to wait for the end before searching the computer file. But he couldn’t do that.
“Computer, send a message to every available officer in this department still in the building. Message reads...” Pollic swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Message reads,” he repeated. “Officers in one-seven-three situation, happening now on holo screen three.”
All he could do now was wait for others with a higher ranking to arrive and take charge as they always did.
He couldn’t watch the screen anymore. The dead man started chanting, eerily voiced words sending shivers down his spine. Quickly he deactivated the audio and was wrapped in a heavy silence. He turned his chair around and faced the door.
His daughter walked through the door. “Hi, Dad.” She was smiling and looking as lovely as ever.
Office Pollic almost believed the vision. He shook his head to clear it and realized he was crying.
––––––––
“Peter, we have to go now.” Rachael’s voice was urgent with worry wrapping the sounds in a thick blanket of seriousness.
Peter was on his knees, holding the dagger in front of him. His eyes were open but weren’t focused on anything. He looked as if he hadn’t heard her.
“We must leave now. The police have cameras in their eyes. Everything’s been copied to hard-drive.” Rachael realized she was near panic and that wouldn’t help the situation. She took several long deep breaths to calm herself, but it didn’t seem to work. Losing Peter so soon was not an option she could bear. “Please, we must go now.”
Slowly Peter stood up, still chanting. The words were sweet music to her ears. He walked towards her, the words warmed her chills, comforted her, and she felt the panic slipping away. The stress leaked from her pores.
An inch from her, he stopped chanting. His face was relaxed...and clean. The blood, which had covered it, was gone. She looked around her. The two police officers were also gone. The cruiser was still here.
Suddenly, Peter reached forward, placed his hand behind her head and kissed her hard on the mouth. He kissed her with a passion and fire she had never felt before. She responded with a hunger so ravenous that she feared it could never be fully sated.
Peter broke the kiss. “Shall we take a ride?” he said, nodding towards the cruiser. “I do need to find something, and this mode of transportation I can handle.” He smiled.
“It won’t start. The computer will analyze your DNA before start-up.”
“Wow,” he replied. “I like the technology of this world.”
This was a side of Peter she never expected. Joyful and joking around did not seem to suit him and what she had seen. But there he was with a big grin on his face and walking as calm as could be to the cruiser. He pressed his hand to the door and it slid open.
“Get in,” he said.
Stunned, Rachael followed him. She pressed her hand to the other door and it too slid open. She sat in the passenger seat, which was too large for her, and got a surprise when it automatically adjusted to fit her comfortably.
“It did that to me, too.” Peter was still smiling. And out of the blue, he said, “Where’s my computer?”
––––––––
It seemed like hours, but Officer Pollic knew logically it had only taken a minute at the most before someone answered his call. The last person he wanted to show up was exactly the person first to enter. His son, Tom.
“Dad, didn’t you hear the siren?”
He hadn’t answered the call after all; he was looking for his father. Quickly, Officer Pollic stood up and placed his hands on Tom’s shoulders, turning him around and hoping he hadn’t seen what was on the holo screen. He led his son towards the door.
Captain Burke suddenly blocked the way. He was a tall man with a belly that extended past his shoes. “What the hell’s going on, Pollic?”
“The holo screen, sir.” He turned around and saw the two Ps sipping coffee. Their visors were off and the viewing screen behind Phillip was blank. No warnings were on it, nor any flashing alert messages. From the view, they were the only people there.
“What about it?”
Pollic shook his head. “No, I wasn’t watching this, sir,” he said. “Screen two must have shut down again.” He went to his seat. “I hate to say this, but I witnessed my daughter, Michelle, and Officer Stone...” His voice broke. Quickly regaining his composure, he continued, “They have been...” he barely managed to say it, “killed.”
“What?” Captain Burke and Tom said at the same time. They rushed forward to the holo screen.
Officer Pollic started crying again. Voicing it seemed to make Michelle and Linda’s death all the more real.
He watched the captain tap away at the holo keyboard. Then run his hands through his hair. The captain typed fast. “What the...” He looked confused and gave Pollic a suspicious look.
“Dad, we can’t find anything. Call it up on the computer. You’re logged in so it will respond only to you.”
“And me,” the captain said. He sounded angry. “Computer find Stone retina 337-2241.”
“Processing request now.” The computer’s voice was bland. It sounded more robotic then ever before. But Pollic knew it was only a trick of the ears. “Request found.”
“Play it,” Tom blurted out.
“Your voice pattern is not recognized as ‘User.’
Captain Burke boomed, “Play it.”
On the screen, Michelle and Linda were discussing the shift’s route. The holo clock read 0320. All they could see was the holo notepad.
“Fast forward,” the captain said, “to zero six forty.”
The screen flashed and suddenly he could see Michelle’s hand pointing in the distance. The cloud of black bombers from the German/Arabian army flew in attack formation. The planes fanned out into a V shape.
Pollic heard his daughter’s voice. The tones drilled spikes into his heart.
“Are they ours?” Michelle.
“Can’t tell. Too far away.”
“What shall we do?”
After a moment Linda said, “We’ll go do East area first then come back here.”
“I’ll send an emergency email.”
“We have to get someone to the East area,” Pollic said, but neither the captain nor Tom responded.
A moment later came the conversation he would never forget.
“Do you hear that?” Michelle’s voice.
“Guess we better head to a safety zone.” Linda looked in the rearview mirror as she said this. The fighter jets were more clearly visible. A sudden white flash surprised her and she lost control of the cruiser momentarily. “Jesus, that was close.” Linda looked up. Above her the sky was hazy like looking at dimmed cruiser lights in a heavy fog. “The real sky’s beautiful,” she whispered.
And then it changed...
Michelle said, “I’m worried about those bombers, aren’t you?”
“Think we should head to a safety zone?” Linda was looking at Michelle, who nodded, yes.
“Area Seventeen has a police bunker.”
“You don’t think we’d need something like that, do you?” Michelle’s voice was warped with worry. “Surely it can’t get that bad.”
Officer Pollic stared at the screen. “That’s not what I saw,” he said, leaning forward to see the screen better.
“How can that not be what you saw?” Captain Burke asked.
“It isn’t. No, this is all wrong. They found someone injured and went to assist him. He was faking and now they’re dead.”
“Dad, they went to Area Seventeen.” Tom wrapped his arm around his father. “I’m sure they’re fine.”
“Then check.”
“We will as soon as the raid is over.”
Officer Pollic realized he hadn’t heard or felt any bombing for a while now. “It’s over already. Call them, please, Tom, do it.”
“Okay, Dad,” he said, but his voice betrayed his true feelings of wasting time. “Computer, contact Michelle Pollic.”
“Your voice pattern is not recognized as ‘User.’
Captain Burke said, “Contact Michelle Pollic.”
“Performing request, please wait.”
A full minute passed.
“Unavailable at present, please try again later.”
“You see, Dad,” Tom said, “Michelle’s in the bunker waiting for the all clear siren.” His voice was soothing and his words logical.
But Officer Pollic couldn’t believe it. This is not what he had seen. Was he dreaming? He doubted it. He had never slept on the job before. But he was getting old. Perhaps he was too old for this kind of job. Had the stress finally gotten to him? Was he seeing things? His career was over now, no matter what the outcome.
“Come on, Dad, let’s get in the safety zone just in case it’s not finished yet.”
“Okay, Tom,” he said and let his son lead him through the door and down the stairs. Pollic made a decision: once his daughter was found safe and sound, he would resign. He couldn’t bear another vision like that. It was too painful.