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21:27 Thursday 17 November 2089
Michelle could hear something.
“Shhhhh. I think Max has arrived. She moved just outside of the protection of the VACS dome and called out in a whisper.
“Max, over here.”
“Where?”
“Behind the mausoleum.”
Max headed towards the source of the whispers. He followed Michelle and ducked inside the invisible dome. Caitlin was already inside, sharing a bottle of water with Philippa.
“Whose idea was it to have this meeting in a bloody cemetery? Halloween was over two weeks ago.”
Michelle handed Max a bottle of water.
“You may be wondering why Caitlin and I asked you to meet us here.”
Max shook his head.
“Not really. It’s got to be about this cyber-hacking by Garcia, hasn’t it?”
“Yes. That’s right. But the hacking isn’t the main problem. It’s the message. He’s stirring up hatred against Recarns, all Recarns. And I’m not just talking about persecution, I’m talking about genocide, total extermination. That affects you two directly. You both have Recarn souls, you’re both targets.”
Philippa took a swig of water.
“But Max and I have always been loyal to One Life. One Life saved Max as a baby, and I know that I was on the wrong side for a while but since then I’ve fought against the Illuminati.”
Caitlin touched her doppelganger on the arm.
“Nobody’s questioning your loyalty, Pip. You’re one of us. But that doesn’t make any difference to Garcia. To him, you’re both Recarns. Recarns. Nothing else. He doesn’t care if you’re a good person or if you’ve been fighting for One Life. To him, you aren’t human.”
Philippa looked down at the ground. She could feel her eyes moistening.
“I’m a clone and a Recarn. A double whammy.”
Caitlin put her arm around Philippa’s shoulder.
“Pip, you are human. Don’t ever think otherwise.
Michelle was secretly pleased to hear her sister comfort Philippa like that; there was a time when Caitlin had despised clones, a time when she hated Philippa with a vengeance. But that was a long time ago. Philippa reached up to her shoulder and squeezed Caitlin’s hand.
“I have a confession to make though. It’s a bit strange...”
Michelle had a feeling that she knew what Philippa was going to say.
“Don’t worry Pip. You’re among friends.”
“OK... Well, I’ve lost my memory. My past life memory I mean. My normal memory’s fine, but I only remember being this Philippa. I’ve no idea who I was before. Or what I did. There’s a gap in my mind. I don’t know how it happened.”
Michelle felt that she needed to come clean. It would be a shock, even to her sister. Only a handful of people knew her secret.
“Pip, I need to tell you something. You too, Caitlin and Max, ‘cos it’s bound to affect Max too. The reason that Pip can’t remember her past lives is our fault. One Life’s I mean. We spread a virus, created a pandemic to suppress past life memories. Its purpose was to cripple the Illuminati, to take away their advantage. Unfortunately, it affected all Recarns, not just the bad guys.”
Philippa was speechless. She just didn’t know what to say. She really didn’t know how she felt about hearing this news. Max broke the silence.
“But I can still remember my past lives. Why’s that?”
“Really?
Michelle was shocked.
“You shouldn’t be able to remember. Your PLM should have been blocked off.”
“Maybe I’m immune.”
“Well, whatever you do, don’t tell anyone else. Pretend that you can’t remember anything about your past life, you mustn’t attract attention to yourself.”
Caitlin returned to the original subject.
“Anyway, you didn’t ask us here to drop that bombshell, Mitch. About Garcia.”
“Yes. Garcia. We need to stop him.”
“How? Do you have any ideas?”
“Not really. He’s creating a common enemy, someone to fear and to blame for everything that’s gone wrong in people’s lives. And that enemy is the Recarn. It doesn’t matter whether a Recarn is a member of the Illuminati or not; good or bad, he’s tarring all Recarns with the same brush.”
“What about Zafar? Can’t he do something about Garcia? Zafar was the Businessman’s number two.”
“Nobody has seen or heard from Zafar for nearly a week. He’s disappeared into thin air. I hope he’s okay.”
Caitlin frowned.
“So what can we do?”
“Garcia is spreading his vitriol through the internet and through any telecommunications system. People are starting to receive recorded messages at all times of the day or night, urging them to seek out and report people who they suspect of being Recarns. It’s what Hitler did a hundred and fifty years ago.”
“Hitler?”
“You really should have paid more attention in history classes, Caitlin. Hitler tried to exterminate Jews in the same way but, even though he didn’t have the technology we have now, he still managed to get a large portion of the German people behind him.”
Max sighed.
“I remember it. It was awful. I was killed in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. I was burnt alive when SS-Brigadeführer Stroop ordered the burning of the Ghetto, block by block. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I don’t see how we can stop Garcia though – modern technology means that he’s got global reach.”
“We have to do what we can. If we don’t, then millions of innocent people will die. They may die anyway, but I’m not prepared to stand by and watch it happen, without even trying to stop it. The Massacre of the Innocents was horrific and this has the potential to be even worse. We have to save as many as we can. It may be a drop in the ocean, but many drops make an ocean. If we can make people see what’s really going on maybe we can turn it around. But it’s not going to happen overnight. I don’t know how, I just know I need to do something. So, if anybody has any ideas?”
Max hated that he still had memories of those days in the Warsaw Ghetto. He could remember seeing family and friends gunned down indiscriminately by Waffen-SS troops. He remembered the houses being searched and ransacked and the inhabitants being dragged off to await transport to the Treblinka Extermination Camp. He remembered seeing his best friend herded into the square with a group of prisoners. Suddenly his friend opened fire with a hidden pistol, shooting at one of the police officers. He remembered seeing his friend racked with pain as bullet after bullet tore into his body as the SS troops responded with gunfire of their own. He would never forget the evil expression on SS-Brigadeführer Stroop’s face as he stood over the boy and gave him the final coup de grâce, not out of pity but out of hatred.
He was envious of Philippa, who had had her burden lifted and was now free of the pain of any brutal memories that she had borne for centuries. He wished that he too had received that gift.
Max shook himself back to the present day.
“I don’t believe we can stop this.”
Caitlin wasn’t so defeatist.
“We have to try.”
“It’s going to happen. We can’t stop it. During the Second World War, there were neutral countries, refuges from the Nazis, but there won’t be sanctuaries like that for Recarns. The reach of both the Illuminati and One Life is global. But maybe we can save some lives along the way. That should be our aim.”
Michelle broached a subject that the others had either not thought about or were trying to avoid.
“So, where are we now? I mean, are we still One Life? Or are we on our own?”
The rest of the group looked at each other; they hadn’t thought of that. Michelle answered her own question.
“I think Caitlin and I should stay inside One Life. That way we can keep an eye on what’s going on. But Max and Pip, it’s too dangerous for you to go back. You’re Recarns. As far as Garcia is concerned, you’re the enemy. You need to find somewhere to hide out – for the moment at least. Unless a miracle happens and Zafar suddenly reappears and sorts this mess out.”
The four agreed to make contact in a few days’ time, Michelle and Caitlin heading for Michelle’s apartment. Philippa had no idea why Max could still remember his past lives when her own previous incarnations were now a mystery to her, but she was grateful that he could. If he hadn’t remembered buying a cottage in Scotland in a previous life things would have been far more difficult.
Two days later Adam knocked on the door of a white-washed cottage in Kylesmorar, Scotland. He couldn’t believe how remote it was, perched all alone with stunning uninterrupted views over Loch Nevis. Philippa had said that it was off the beaten track and off the grid; she wasn’t wrong. He stood admiring the surrounding vista as the rustic brown door with its six square panes of glass opened to show Philippa standing in the doorway, an expectant smile on her face.
He’d first met Philippa in 2069 when he had helped Michelle locate and rescue Caitlin, who had been imprisoned and systematically abused by Marcus Gallagher. Adam had always had a thing for Caitlin but he knew that he wasn’t her type; at the time she was more into what people might call bad boys. But Philippa and he had experienced an immediate attraction. At first, Adam was worried that it was because she looked identical to the woman that he had always secretly fancied but, as the two began to get to know each other properly, he realised – and, more importantly, she too realised – that they were falling in love. It didn’t bother him in the slightest that she was a clone, or that she was a Recarn. He fell in love with the soul, the wonderful woman inside the cloned body. He fell in love with Philippa, not her soul’s host.
Philippa pulled him inside the cottage, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him passionately, oblivious to the slightly uncomfortable figure of Max standing in the doorway of the spacious sitting room. Max felt a pang of jealousy seeing Adam reunited with his fiancée, whilst he and Caitlin had to remain separated. He knew it was for the best, that if he had stayed he would have been one of the first to be marked for death, but it didn’t make the estrangement any easier to bear.
It was important that Adam should join them in the Scottish Highlands for logistical reasons too; Adam was the computer whizz-kid (a title that he felt to be a misnomer now, having celebrated his thirty-third birthday just thirteen days earlier), the IT magician who could take a selection of seemingly unrelated components and turn them into a fully functioning comms device or some other useful piece of equipment. Max had a nickname for him, MacGyver, although he never told Adam. There was no point; Adam wasn’t a Recarn and would have had no idea who MacGyver was. He had enjoyed a private joke with Philippa though, when he had explained to her about MacGyver and suggested that she should buy Adam a Swiss Army knife for his last birthday.
Adam managed to reluctantly peel himself away from his girlfriend and the trio sat down in the sitting room.
“My message wasn’t too cryptic then?”
“I’m here Pip, so no. I burned the note though, not that anyone else could have understood it though. Max, did you manage to scratch together the stuff I need?”
Max popped out to the kitchen and returned with a medium sized cardboard box.
“All here. Looks like a load of junk to me, but I’m sure you can do something with it.”
Adam peered into the box.
“I surely can. Perfect,”
“What are you going to make?”
“There’s an old disused satellite floating around up there in the atmosphere. I’m going to kick-start it and use it to create a private encrypted comms network. There’s nothing connected to it, hasn’t been for years, so nobody will notice that it’s come alive again. It means we’ll be able to communicate with Mitch and Caitlin, with no fear of being discovered or overheard.”
“You can do that, using this old junk?”
“Of course. Just call me MacGyver.”
Max looked surprised.
“Don’t worry Max. Pip told me when she gave me the Swiss Army knife for my last birthday. I find the nickname rather flattering. Thanks.”
Philippa liked to see her man enthusiastic about his work.
“When do you think it’ll be ready?”
“I’m starving, so I’d like to eat breakfast first. But if I get started right after breakfast, it should be up and running by first thing tomorrow. There’ll be a bit of trial and error while I configure things but I don’t foresee any problems.”
Max was pleased with the news; he was looking forward to chatting with Caitlin again.