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10:28 Monday 15 January 2091
Garcia had started a giant snowball rolling but even he couldn’t have anticipated the fervour with which so many ‘normals’ would denounce their families and friends. A series of impromptu and informal league tables were created online where neighbourhoods would compete as to how many Recarns they could hand over to the authorities. There was even talk of an official national ‘Rat on a Recarn’ league being created, complete with cash prizes.
In her apartment, Michelle was feeling peckish and was in the middle of preparing a snack when she heard a commotion coming from the street. She looked out of the window to see a large crowd gathered around one of her neighbours, a middle-aged balding man who was suspected to have worked at an STC. Her father hadn’t gone into all the gory details of what he had happened, but he had told his family that it had been extremely humiliating and denigrating.
Michelle watched, helpless, as he was tied to a lamppost and blows rained down upon him, as his former friends rained blow after blow upon the helpless man. Finally, she could stand it no more and her sense of what’s right kicked in. She fetched a pulse rifle from its locked cupboard and called Dani and Caitlin on her communicator. They would arrive in a couple of minutes so she opened the window and aimed the rifle at one of the vigilantes, first ensuring that the rifle was set to stun. A bolt of orange light shot out of the gun’s nozzle, and knocked the attacker to the ground, just as he was about to take another well-aimed kick at the semi-conscious man. She set her communicator to broadcast and the whole street could suddenly hear her voice.
“This is Colonel Michelle Boone, Senior Field Agent for One Life. You all know who I am, and what I do. Step back from Mr Trinder or I shall be forced to shoot more of you.”
The crowd looked at one another but did as they were told. They did indeed know Michelle and knew that her threat wasn’t an idle one. Caitlin and Dani arrived after a few seconds and released Mr Tinder’s bloody but still breathing body from its restraints. They hoisted him into the back of their pickup and set off to take the wounded man away from danger, Dani driving and Caitlin administering first aid to the injured man. Michelle had kept her rifle trained on the lynch mob during the extraction, not so much to protect Mr Trinder from further attack but more to protect her girlfriend and her sister. She waited until the pickup was out of sight before allowing the crowd to disperse.
The victim wasn’t as badly injured as they had feared and was soon able to talk, albeit rather painfully.
“Thank you both so much for rescuing me. I thought I was going to die.”
Caitlin shook her head.
“It’s my sister, Michelle, you should be thanking. She’s the one who stopped them from killing you.”
“How can I thank you enough? All of you.”
“Don’t worry about it. Where can we take you? You won’t necessarily be safe from a Recarn check but at least you’ll be safe from your neighbours.”
“My sister lives in Windsor. Is that too far?”
“No. We can do that.”
Mr Trinder’s face suddenly lit up.
“Maybe I can help you, somehow. Doing the job I do – the job I did – I don’t think I’ll be going back there now, I hear things. You know, rumours.”
“Go on. I’ll buy it. What’ve you heard?”
“Well, people who come in to us at the STC, they don’t go out again, you know? So they tell us things sometimes. Just to get things off their chests. Want to die with a clear conscience.”
“And?”
“And last week a bloke came in who works – worked – at a prison, you know, one of those Stasis Containment Centres. He said he recognised one of the inmates. Had met him years ago at a seminar. Anyway, this bloke said that he recognised him. He’d got older – don’t we all – but it was definitely the same bloke.”
“Why should that interest us?”
“He said that the prisoner was a high-up in One Life. Very high-up. That’s why he was so surprised to see him in Stasis.”
“What was his name?”
“The bloke from the prison?”
“No, the man in stasis.”
“He was in there under the name of Brooks, but this bloke reckoned he was someone else.”
“Who?”
“He said that when he met him at the seminar his name was Zafar.”
This was a real bombshell. Everybody had assumed that Zafar had been killed – all except Michelle, that is. She wouldn’t accept that he was dead until a body was produced and identified. It seems that Mitch’s gut instinct was right. Caitlin grabbed Mr Trinder by the arm.
“Are you sure he said the name, Zafar?”
“Dead sure. No pun intended.”
“Did he say which prison he was in?”
“Sorry, no. Just that he was in stasis in a prison.”
Caitlin touched her communicator and dialled in Michelle and Max. This was the biggest and the best news they could have hoped for.
“Mitch. Max. Can you hear me?”
Her sister and her boyfriend both acknowledged that they could.
“Got some important news. Zafar’s not dead.”
Michelle was stunned, although it was the news that she’d been hoping for.
“Are you sure?”
“Mr Trinder seems sure. And I believe him.”
“This could be the breakthrough we’re waiting for. I knew that there’s no way Zafar would have agreed to this purge against all Recarns.”
Max cut in.
“Probably what got him put in stasis in the first place. So now all we have to do is find where he is. I’ll tell the others. Adam found Caitlin, so I’m sure he can find Zafar.”
The call was disconnected and Caitlin grinned at Mr Trinder.
“You have no idea what you’ve done. You may well have saved the world from the greatest act of genocide ever seen.”
Mr Trinder looked genuinely surprised.
“Really? Saved the world? You serious?”
“Yes. Well, sort of.”
“Will I get a medal?”
“If it were up to me, yes. But probably not.”
“Pity. Still, lucky I was beaten up then.”
“Yes, Mr Trinder. Those cuts and bruises –”
“And a couple of broken ribs, I reckon.”
“And broken ribs. That’s a small price to pay for having Zafar back in the equation.”
“Glad to have been of service. I don’t like that Garcia bloke. Anything that helps get rid of him.”
The pickup rolled onto the M4 motorway and headed towards Windsor, whose castle was soon visible. Mr Trinder had more than earned his rescue and a ride to his sister’s house.